I can`t belive these idiot`s have been allowed to reduce our roads to one way !
When we had roads works going on around newbury, they wouldnt allow access through the race couse to ease the traffic on Hambridge rd.

Now we have to sit in traffic, and taken other routes home because of the races and
they would dream of reducing there enterance fee for the people that live in Newbury.


see you in the traffic !

It is certainly stacking up out there. I don't travel round that side of the town so the roadworks did not affect me but can completely understand your frustration.

You'd have thought it'd be people trying to escape SIMPLY (d)RE(a)D(ful) not the other way round, oh hang on though, this is trendy hip and with it Newbury................................

Cheer up Graham you miserable sod....

No you won't, I generally walk into town., perhaps you should too?

I normally cycle to work but because of meeting this week i`ve had to use the car !

So what was the traffic like on the A339 south last night? Did my cunning plan (off the M4 eastbound around 6.30pm at Hungerford, A4, Hamstead Marshall, Enborne Road into Newbury) save me anything?

Have you seen the state of Newbury lately ?

Its run down, the town centre is a mess, the roads are knackered!

What do you mean by "run down"?

I certainly wouldn't describe the Market Place as run down but then perhaps my definition of run down is different to yours.

Newbury's a hole. Maybe, just maybe when all the renovations are complete it will have been worth it, but by then the damage will be done.

OP took his own thread off topic! Any answer to my question in post #7, please?

What do you mean by last night? It was OK through town at 18:00.

Thanks for the info. I was only going by what I had read earlier about the town being potentially gridlocked with people arriving for the Simply Red concert. That was the reason for my diversion - it seems it wasn't needed, but better safe than sorry eh? And it's a prettier route

Edit: I was stuck for a couple of hours in a town centre gridlock when we had the unexpected snow, and it ain't funny.

Leave then

^^^And it's full of people like him ^^^

I totally agree. I think there was traffic for the races earlier.

Ah, there was racing as well? Double whammy!

It certainly didn't look very nice by the Bus Station this morning ( Opposite Liquid !! ) with a large trail of blood along the pavement. Unless of course some one had a nose bleed, the thought of the delightful paved Market Place proving to exciting for them.

I'd be interested to know where of similar size is better and still want to know what's "run down" in Newbury.

Why do you think we should leave? Isn't that a bit defeatist? I have spent most of my life here in Newbury and just because the council seems to have gone mad for a couple of years and ruined it, I would rather stay and try to make it better thank you. Why don't you lot leave and go somewhere where they would appreciate you more? France or somewhere wholly socialist.

Seem to recall we had this sort of discussion some months back when I posed the question 'where, of a similar size and within a similar distance of London, is better than Newbury? Someone suggested Wokingham but few other takers. Anyone else suggest somewhere appreciably better than Newbury?

Why does it have to be the same size? There are plenty of places that I would deem better, but you never know unless you actually live there. Winchester, Eastleigh, and Wokingham are three. Maidenhead seems nice too. And Windsor but that's probably a bit expensive. My family are here although I met my wife in Yorkshire. I brought her down here because it used to be so nice. If I were to move it would be to The States, which takes a bit more organising than just deciding to go on a whim.

user23

have you driven down London rd ? there`s boards up where the garage use to be, drive on a bit further
and there is more rubble on the corner of park way which is going to be a hotel and then there`s the park way development which has run out of money again because there`s a lack of interest from new buisness`s and this info came from some one who works in Marks and spencer,

been in the town ? well the start of the town looks like a post card from Iraq with half a building on the left hand side and then in the middle of the town there boards and windows painted white where shops have closed and not been re opened by other buisness`s, oh but we do have x3 Tesco stores x4 if you include the one in thatcham now do we no why we needed another tesco ? surely we could have had Morrision`s or Asda but we ended up with another tesco so i wonder who took the back hander there!

Newbury used to be a really nice town with a good town centre and money put back in to it, but those days seem to be long gone, the council does nothing for the Newbury residents any more take friday they close roads for the races and simply red gig but still allow road work to continue on on major roads around the race course! now would`nt it make sense to carry out the road works at night ? it must be safer for the work men and less traffic.

west berks or Newbury council want people to come to Newbury and spend the day here shopping going to the cinema or looking around newbury that sort of thing like you would do in Swindon, Reading, basingstoke

point made !

Problem.....

Road works at night might be advisable for safety reasons on high speed/high volume roads like the A34. M4 or A4 outside of the towns....... But try carrying out roadworks at night on residential roads and you find that residents complain about the noise, the smell of tarmac, the floodlights, ummm. the noise, the inconvenience. Yes even though they might be tucked up in bed, they'll complain about the inconvenience...

And to top it all, it costs an awful lot more to get workmen to commit to working unsociable hours..... not a sensible use of limited funds.

Your obviously very naive and blinkered with your ideas of the definition of a poor place to live if that's the worst you can come up with.

One the one hand you're complaining about the town being run town, then on the other you're complaining about all the road repairs and building work being done. You can't have it both ways. And as someone has said, it costs a lot more to work at night and people complain about the noise.

I was in the Market Place yesterday evening and I must say I think it looks very nice this time of year, surely you don't think it looks "run down"?

It's really up to Asda or Morrison whether open a shop round here, not the council, have you written to them asking why they haven't?

User23

did Asda & Morrison have the chance to come to Newbury I know most people would have liked another food store other than tesco,
The market place yes you have mentioned this a number of times ? what do you want me to say ?

The possible reason for this is the extortionate rent that is STILL being charged for shops in the town.

If you want profitable retail businesses in the town then they need to be charged a realistic rent.

I don't think Newbury is run down, but I do think it's going to end up like that. From what I have heard only Debenhams have signed up to the new shopping center. Any others? The Cinema ( I haven't been yet, but am planning to) is still awaiting food shops to go in. Where are they? Surely this should of been agreed and wrote into the contract before work started. People making the decisions about our town do it without thinking about what the people want. I for one do not want/like the new shopping center. We don't need it and I don't think people from other towns will use it. The Kennet Center (which i think is dyer apart from a few shops) just needed a re-vamp.
I love the park and want it to stay like that, the plans I have seen for it are dreadful.

I love living here, I just don't like how Newbury is becomming. If I could get a good job down in Weymouth then I would be there!

[quote name='Andy' date='Jul 12 2010, 02:21 AM' post='20376']
Your obviously very naive and blinkered with your ideas of the definition of a poor place to live if that's the worst you can come up with.
[/quo

blinkered dont you get out ? if this is what you want to see when you come to a town
the we have different views, i would like to see more money put back in to newbury and make it a nice town again there enougfh of it around Newbury, look at the buisness`s we have.

how long you lived in Newbury ?

i love living in newbury and wouldnt live in a bigger town but it seems that not every one has the towns best interest at heart.

On one of your points: the boarded up ex-Wheeler's garage is boarded up because it's being redeveloped as a site for a new Aldi supermarket. As far as I know, that's not a branch of Tesco.

Try living somewhere like here and then maybe you'll hopefully understand the point I'm trying to make.

We'd all like to see more money pumped into the town and more varied shops open, but I'm not naive or stupid enough to believe it will happen before the recession is well and truly passed and until that point I'm grateful for what we have.

Additionally comparing a few building works with Iraq and what they have to endure, in my opinion is frankly disgaceful and I for one would be thouroughly ashamed to even consider such an analogy.

P.S. 25 years

You and Graham seem to be polarised to the point of hysteria.
There are too many unused retail premises in Newbury which does not create the right image. Couple this with the litter in Victoria park and the high incidence of street crime at the end of Bartholomew street and the drunks at St Nick's church then you do have to ask the question what can be done to improve this. Iraq it isn't and exagerating the situation does not help.
However i suspect that you do recognise the valid point being made.

Not nice, but you don't have to leave the UK to find places a lot worse than Newbury:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kpmarek/4120236025/

We're not a market town anymore, we are a 'supermarket' town. Surely that is progress?

What seems to have happened over the last 30 years with Newbury and Thatcham is that continued house building for whatever reason, need, greed or accepted stratergy has attracted more people into the area and this in turn attracts the volume retail outlets to the detriment of the smaller and more personal retailers.
This has inevitably changed both towns beyond recognition.
Some would call this progress and in many ways it is but it is at the cost of the closer relationship that towns like Hungerford and Marlborough seem to maintain between residents themselves and the retail trade.
Newbury and Thatcham are turning into dormitory towns with little investment into local manufacturing opportunities. The vast majority of jobs just service the ever growing population.
Does seem a shame that the two towns have lost their identity. Once Parkway is occupied you could be in any town in the South.

Who should be offering Asda & Morrison "the chance" to open a shop in Newbury?

Surely they're able to submit a planning application to build a new shop any time they want?

Andy

There`s mixed reviews on the forum about Newbury, i agree that this recession has`nt helped some of the retail buisness `s but its been going on long before the recession.

Newbury has allways been slow on the up. like the cinema how long did that take 12 years wasnt it, it would be nice for the council or board to to respect the residents ideas and look at what would benefit Newbury and move Newbury forward and this might attract different retail company`s and bring in new buisness.

On topic, I wonder if this temporary road layout could be conceived as a 'dry run' for the new development in the race course. The ghost of Christmas future?

Asda/Morisons could easily have come to Newbury. The old Woolworth would have been ideal, empty units at the retail park or they could have done a new build like Tesco and Waitrose did and Aldi are doing.

They probably wouldn't have wanted to, as we already have Tesco, Sainsbury, Waitrose, Lidl and soon to be Aldi.

Too much competition

Tesco have SEVEN outlets in Newbury/Thatcham - the One-Stop stores are owned by Tesco

Morrison's would do very well locally... Can anyone suggest a site?

Why do you say that? From the adverts I've seen, they don't look much different from Tesco's.

I counted 8 empty shops between the Clock Tower and the canal not including those that have been closed because of the Parkway developement.
I'm not sure how many Charity shops we have in Newbury but it is at least 5.
Not a great sign given that only 2 of the new Parkway shops have been taken up one of these by Debenham which will obviously vacate the Kennet centre.

I can think of 8!!

Good lord. Not a great indicator of demand by retail outlets jousting with each other to be situated in Newbury.
Maybe rents are too high? Something is not quite right with this picture.

Take 31 Northbrook Street for example - the blue one next to the O2 shop.

£75,000pa rent and £20,244 rates!

Does seem a lot but I don't know how this compares with comparable space in Reading or Basingstoke.

I know of a telecomes company with office in London with good views over the Thames oposite Big Ben. Employ roughly 100 and rent is £100k. Don't know what the rates are though!

Speaking of telecomms companies, a lot of the change in Newbury could be put down to the highs and lows of Vodafone.

Remembering Newbury when Vodafone spun out of Racal and had every other office building (seemingly) led to something of a boom for our high street and central areas. People were moving into the area and splashing out on houses and people were constantly in the high street over lunch, on breaks and after work which boosted foot traffic and passing trade.

Ever since Vodafone moved out of town, a number of office sites were left vacant and not subsequently filled. Add to that the effect of out of town retail parks and a recession as well as building owners evidently keeping rents high it has created something of a perfect storm.

As I only see the town infrequently now (maybe once a year give or take) the changes are much more apparant than if I had seen them gradually. I note that more shops are vacant and there are more of the cheap and cheerful variety and there generally being less 'buzz' in town on a Saturday.

Having said that Newbury is still a very nice place and one I still love to visit. Walking around the canal and through the park, by the wharf and so on all have a feel of a pleasant smallish town (and the out of town feel is excellent with Donnington castle, Highclere, pubs!, woods, rivers, hills and all the walks and outdoor activities that fit with that type of environment - just honest to goodness, down to earth countryside).

I don't rate the high street as once I did, though the out of town shops are larger and have a decent range (especially up near Tesco). One thing I do miss though is the indoor market where the Hogshead has been for a while - interesting place for a nose, though of course not high end.

Give me Newbury over Basingstoke/Reading/Swindon any day of the week!