How come we had ludicrously high council tax increases when the Lib Dems were last in charge of WBC? Don't recall it being the Tories in Government slashing funding to councils then. Do remember our increases being either the highest or second highest in the country.


Thank goodness we don't have a Lib Dem run council then - it would be far more than a 6% rise then. More like 36%.

I didn't know they were going to give us new trains and extra capacity 15 years ago. Perhaps you tell us what they were. The new trains now ARE happening, and the new capacity IS coming. It is extremely unfortunate that they had a breakdown and leaky air conditioning on the inaugural service, but with anything brand new, there are always teething problems. I notice no leaky a/c on day 2 or day 3 or day 4 ... or on any of the other 60+ days since.

Just to put you right on your memory of our Turbos - not all the Turbos had (indeed have) air conditioning. Only 21 have it, the remaining 76 don't. I too travelled on them and of the a/c ones, they often had failed air conditioning even when new, and they never had them all pulled out because of a squabble, think you just made that bit up.

As for privatisation, the Turbos were designed and built early 1990s by the state owned British Rail, including the not-up-to-the-job air conditioning.

Yeah it's a real bummer that year after year more and more people want to travel by train isn't it and that they're not doing anything to increase capacity. But hang on a minute.....

At the moment the Newbury-Reading stoppers are 2 or 3 car trains. It is incredibly rare to have any more than that, maybe on race days they might run a few 2+3 car trains, but for the rest of the time I've never seen more than 3 cars and it's not uncommon to find a 2 car train, even during peak hours. Come electrification, we are getting 4 car electric trains on the stoppers. That's an increase in capacity of up to 50%

Moving to the Bedwyn-Paddington and Bedwyn-Reading services. Currently they are 3 car trains. Sometimes annoyingly 2 car. I've never seen anything longer, probably because the turn-back siding at Bedwyn cannot accommodate anything longer. Next year, that service is going to become 5 car hybrid Class 800s, once they've extended the siding. Again, that is a significant increase in capacity.

Finally we have the long distance and peak hour 7 or 8 car HST services that do stop at Newbury. These will be replaced by 5 car and 9 car hybrid Class 800s. When they're 9 car that again is a significant increase in capacity. At the moment though, since introduction on the Paddington-Bristol/Cardiff/Swansea routes, they have been running 5+5 car hybrids sets. I am not sure if the West Country route stopping at Newbury next year will be formed of 5+5 or whether they will be just 5 - that would be the only time capacity could potentially fall. But there would be 9 car trains.

But on the whole, there is a large increase in capacity about to happen, but if we continue to grow our economy and have more workers wanting to commute, there aren't really any other solutions to cattle truck conditions - except perhaps by reducing demand for space by raising fares even more than normal.

No sugar Sherlock, you're a labour activist who floods every thread here in the forum and every story in the main part of the website with leftist drivel, whenever there's a hint of Council or Government involvement, and from memory even on threads and stories that have no political stuff in them will attract your propaganda. The usual "Pin the red rosette to the donkey"....

No, lets not. Thanks.

And to parts of the UK as well.

Create your own Facebook page then on what you consider the right priorities.

I just say no thank you and walk on. Has worked every single time so not sure why some get so bothered by them. Yes they are a pain, but it certainly doesn't need a change of law or any other interference. Just say no thanks.

It's only a problem to you. To me and others we have memories of what the Lib Dems cost Newbury taxpayers and we are well aware that Labour, should they ever get into local power here, would cost even more. The problem is the more liberal (and left) seem to think the public have bottomless pockets to be raided so that any heart tugging cause can be funded. We don't.

I would still rather vote Tory than the useless Lib Dems and would never, ever vote for Labour.

Oh how totally wrong you are. Why not go to a beer festival or visit a pub that regularly has differing beers on tap and actually try them?


Presumably you have noticed the new beer shop in Newbury that has been publicised in the local paper - you know, where it has, err, lots of bottled beers, local and from afar.


Everything. Watney's Red Barrel and the other keg beers of the 1970s are the reason why you think beers generally taste the same and all leave an unpleasant after taste.


Err, no, YOU may have, we haven't.

A few months ago my bin got infested with maggots. I only noticed because I put something into the bin last minute before wheeling it to the road to meet the bin men. I just said to the guy "urgh it's crawling with maggots". When I returned home that evening, the bin had been emptied and cleaned out and was clear of any crawly things.

Either they notice themselves and arranged for the following bin cleaner to act, or my mentioning it to the bin men got them to arrange a clean up. Either way, I was impressed with their assistance.

Normally my stuff is bagged up before going into the bin but a spell of hot weather, contents and me missing a previous collection led to the infestation.

I found it by clicking the first link on the home page, and then details. Presumably it's only hidden away if you have an axe to grind

Does anyone know of a decent adblocker type add-on for the Chrome browser which will remove that hideous yellow advert that is currently appearing on the top, left and right sides of the Newbury Today website?

Normally I don't mind the advertising on their website, after all they have to fund the running of their website, but I do drawn the line at having Lib Dem propaganda rammed down my throat every time I visit.

Or I just have to remember to shrink the width of my browser before visiting and widen it back afterwards.

Good. The main 3 parties are past their sell-by-date and the traitorous red menace needs to be destroyed.

It is not difficult at all to avoid them.

1. You walk
2. one approaches you
3. you say no thank you.
4. You carry on walking.
5. End.

I just firmly say "no thank you" or "not a chance" and just carry on walking. It really isn't difficult but some in this town just seem to be totally incapable of avoiding them and want the nanny state to interfere and control their lives for them.

Except of course it is the ROAD users who fail to observe signs or stick to the rules, so the ROAD lot should be policing their errant ROAD users at their own costs. The inability of MOTORISTS to to follow the rules came long after the railways were invented.

Perhaps, seeing as when railways were designed and built, motorists were non existent or so incredibly sparse, that now, given the volumes of traffic, it should be the ROAD organisations that should be doing far more to reduce the problem.

There's nothing "sad" about parties moving to the right a bit, but it is worrying when they move to the left as Ed the Red is doing to Labour.

All panellists in all programs in 2012 - Leftwing - 101, Right wing - 75. That is rather biased. Taken from the link user gave, and no, user, it does NOT give the politics of everyone, you have to investigate much deeper on many of the panellists. I erred on the side of right wing if a panellists politics wasn't clear, especially if they were of the business man/women type.

Now maybe you will come up with proof that the BBC is balanced?

Oh and User - did you spot 19 April 2012 when there were 4 lefties on versus 1 Tory? No? thought not.

That's just a list of names. Doesn't prove show the 'politics' of anyone.

I notice no apology from them from what is big error. It's not a case of accentuating up the negative but outright lying. As for the BBC, you obviously don't monitor their spectrum of broadcasting otherwise you'd notice the blatant pro-Palestine, pro-EU, pro-Global Warming, pro-Unions, pro-Islamic, pro-Gay rights & pro-Labour bias. I am sure the lefties do write in, on the rare occasions when the News is slanted to the right, boy do we get to hear of the protests.

Why not count up all the left wing and right wing panellists on the programme, over say a period of 1 year. I think you will find that almost every week, the panel will be made up of 1 or 2 right wingers versus 3 or 4 left wingers.

I have always felt that this newspaper batted for the leftward side of politics - Lib Dem / Labour and this "mistake" does nothing to make me think otherwise. Perhaps it was the headline deep down they were hoping to write. I wonder if they have anything in common with the BBC? ....