Thank you to all the Great British Spring Cleaners!
We’d like to thank all of you who went out into your communities to clean-up as part of the Great British Spring Clean.
Across West Berkshire communities have been organising their own litter picks – and we’ve been busy supporting some of these. This year our waste team collected more than 100 bags of litter, supporting groups in Tilehurst, Streatley, Shaw Cum Donnington, Chievely, Pangbourne, Woolhampton, Bucklebury, Ashampstead, Sulhampstead and Ufton Nervet to name just a few. This included loaning out litter picking equipment and arranging the pick-up of all the rubbish collected – as well organising their own team litter-pick!
Over the past year, together with our waste contractor we’ve supported 46 community litter picking events. We’ve got for 160 adult litter pickers and 70 kids litter pickers that we lend to community groups – you can find out more and apply to borrow the equipment here.
We all have a responsibility to keep our local communities clean. Please remember if public bins are full to take your rubbish home with you and recycle as much as you can.
For more information on recycling for West Berkshire, follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/recyclewestberkshire
£150 Government Energy Rebate
Recently, the Government announced that around 20 million households in England in Council Tax bands A-D will get a £150 rebate from April.
We’re working hard to make the £150 payments to customers who paid their Council Tax on 1 April – these should be received by Direct Debit within the next 14 days.
Those who pay by Direct Debit on 15 and 21 April should get their payment before the end of April.
Customers in Bands A to D who do not pay by Direct Debit will be contacted shortly with information on how they can claim their Rebate. You can find more information on our website – and we’ll be keeping this page updated as more information becomes available.
Awards ceremony for Community Champions
The latest recipients of Community Champion Awards were invited to an awards ceremony at Shaw House last month.
Winners in the 2021 awards – which recognise people who have done something special for their local community over the past year – were announced in January. You can find out more about the winners and what they have done for their communities on our website.
The ceremony was a chance to celebrate their community spirit, and for the Chairman and Leader of the Council to say thank you in person to these unsung heroes.
New website for West Berkshire businesses goes live
We’re delighted to have recently launched a new Business West Berkshire website.
The new website will give businesses all the latest information and support they need to start up, relocate, and grow in West Berkshire.
We understand that as a business, there can be an overwhelming amount of information coming from different sources when you want to find out about what a place has to offers. With that in mind our aim was to create a one stop shop – a consolidated essential information hub for businesses in the district. This new website focuses on why you should invest in West Berkshire, business support services available, the local economy, and current projects the council is undertaking.
In the coming months, we aim to introduce more features to the website to make it a business community for all existing and potential West Berkshire businesses. We would encourage all businesses to look and if anyone has any feedback or areas of improvements please email us.
Young West Berkshire literary critics scoop competition prizes
Last term, the charity ‘Assisting Berkshire Children to Read’ (ABC) launched a competition to encourage local youngsters to engage with climate change while inspiring and challenging their inner literary critic by reviewing a book of their choice.
Year 6 children at Curridge Primary School in Thatcham chose the book Mama Miti by Donna Jo Napoli and created beautiful posters to illustrate their thoughts and insights on the book.
Children, schools, and volunteers sent in a mix of video recordings, collages, and written reports on books about forests, human activity, and many other wonderful books on the topic that they had read.
Curridge pupil Maja (pictured centre, below) was the overall competition winner and was complimented for being fully on topic, with thoughtful text and great drawings.
West Berkshire also scooped a runner up place with Porsha from Francis Baily Primary, Thatcham (pictured above right). Judges commented that Porsha had clearly learned from the book and has been inspired to help save wildlife.
