As we head into Spring with longer days and, hopefully, some better weather, many of you might be starting to plan day trips. Did you know that you can have a fascinating and free tour around the palace of Westminster?
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The tour takes in a number of historical areas including the Chambers of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the State Rooms, Central Lobby and the historic Westminster Hall.

Tours are conducted by Parliament’s expert guides and take around 75 minutes. The guides highlight some of Parliament’s dramatic history, explain the work of Parliament and set out ways to get involved and engaged with the democratic process. Whenever possible, I like to meet constituents at the beginning or end of their tour so that I can answer any questions.

I have a programme of tours arranged over the next few months as follows:

Monday 20 February at 11:00
Monday 6 March at 11:00
Monday 20 March at 11:00
Monday 17 April at 11:00
Monday 24 April at 11:00
Friday 12 May at 15:00
Monday 5 June at 11:00
Monday 19 June at 11:00

The list is constantly updated on my website and if any of the dates aren’t suitable, alternative dates can also be booked directly with my office.

It is an absolute privilege to work here and I always enjoy welcoming constituents for visits, including school groups and local organisations. I would love to see constituents from your parish and bookings can be made as follows:

Website     https://www.laurafarris.org.uk/events
Phone     01635-551070
Email     laura.farris.mp@parliament.uk
Mail     Laura Farris MP, Park Street Offices, Park Street, Newbury, RG14 1EA

A Home Emergency Plan can be used as a vital tool in your household (or to help another family member who does not live with you) to be prepared in an emergency situation, like a power cut. 

For more information see download below.​

Welford Parish Council is deeply saddened at the news of the death of Her Majesty The Queen. Our thoughts are with the Royal Family at this time.

An official book of condolence has been opened on the royal.uk website.

A Newbury Today article about the work Welford Parish Council has been doing at Marsh Common in Weston can be found below:

https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/from-a-rubbish-dump-to-beautiful-9271432/

More information about Marsh Common can be found on our Amenities page

The days are getting longer, and our thoughts turn towards summer and to cricket at Welford Park. Preparations at Welford Park are well underway, but the club need help from our local community.
 
Colts Coaching
Children from reception year up to and including year 7 are welcome to come along to our colts coaching which occurs on Fridays from 18:30 to 20:00. Parents are most welcome to stay during these sessions and enjoy the evening
 
Last summer it was very well attended with almost 90 children registered with the club. For the new season we are looking to train an additional 7 coaches, and to purchase almost £2,000 of new equipment. But this all needs funding.
 
We have a fundraising account with the good Exchange whereby Greenham Trust will match every donation. So, including gift aid, a £20 gift is turned into £45 to the club. We still need in excess of £500 of donations, so if you can possibly help, please follow the link and any donation will be gratefully received. https://app.thegoodexchange.com/project/19128/welford-park-cricket-club/welford-park-cricket-club-colts-training-program
 
Club Sponsorship
The club can not survive on members subs only, so we are involved in lots of fundraising opportunities. To stage a match with league umpires and balls costs the club £60. To help with this cost we are looking for local businesses to sponsor a home match for £35 per game or £100 for a 3-match package. 
 
We also have sponsorship opportunities such as signs on the ground, adverts in the fixtures books and shirt sponsorship. If any of these might interest you, please contact Ian Herrington on 07879 204696 or ianherro810@gmail.com.
 
Participation
Would you like to participate as an umpire, scorer or player? We cater for all standards from Berkshire Premier to some very relaxed friendly games which often include beginners or people coming back to cricket for the first time since school.
 
If you are interested please also contact Ian on 07879 204696 or ianherro810@gmail.com.

West Berkshire Council is introducing a new online registration scheme for access to our Household Waste Recycling Centres, replacing the current paper permits with a digital system. Online registrations will open to residents from 30 November 2021. Paper permits, including green car permits that have already expired will continue to be accepted until 28 February 2022. 
The digital permit system will enable households to register and update their vehicle details, household addresses and contact details instantly, allowing for seamless entry into the Household Waste Recycling Centres, so long as they have booked an appointment.  
Residents will also no longer need to wait for a paper permit to arrive in the post or search for it before they visit our recycling facilities. It will also mean that we don’t need to print over 65,000 paper permits to replace those that have already expired, or will expire soon. Under the planned change, there will also be no need to print and post up to 3,000 additional permits for new properties or lost permits every year. The avoidance of use of paper and ink means the Council and its residents can continue to demonstrate greater stewardship of the environment, which will be consistent with the objectives set out in the Council’s Environment Strategy.
Households will be asked to register their car (up to 3 cars per household) online before 28 February 2022. Each household will first need to set up a My Account profile if they do not have one already on the Council’s website via www.westberks.gov.uk/myaccount and then register their car(s) for the digital permits. The process is very quick and simple; it takes less than 3 minutes to complete the actual permit registration. Once you have registered your car(s) the permit will normally become live instantly. The status of your permit will show in your My Account and you will receive an email confirming the outcome of your registration. Digital permit applications for commercial type vehicle permits will take up to 15 days to be assessed and processed. This is because there are more checks required for commercial-type vehicles to ensure that they are not being used to deposit trade waste at our sites.
The new system will alert site staff of un-registered vehicles entering the Household Waste Recycling Centres using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras.
The rules regarding what types of vehicle can access the Household Waste Recycling Centres are not changing. Our HWRC user guide explains what types of vehicles can access our HWRCs, together with any restrictions in place and site rules that have to be observed by visitors.   
Householders who do not have access to the internet can either ask friends or family to register on their behalf or use facilities available at their local library to register. Alternatively, they can call our customer service team on: 01635 519080 where a request for assistance from one of our officers can be raised. Please be aware that it may take up to 15 working days following receipt of your request for assistance to set up your permit.  Residents are kindly requested to only call if they cannot do it online or have a friend or family member assist them. Please note that our phone lines are very busy at this time and we would prefer to prioritise helping vulnerable residents. 
Households with a commercial type vehicle permit will also need to register their vehicle details online. If you currently have a valid commercial type vehicle permit we will contact you directly to let you know what you need to do. 
Non West Berkshire residents are not eligible to register their vehicles as part of this scheme and still need to book an appointment before they visit and pay the entry charge of £7 per visit. 
Households will still need to book an appointment to use Newtown Road or Padworth Lane Recycling Centre. To book an appointment please visit: www.westberks.gov.uk/clickandtip.
For more information on the new online registration scheme and for frequently asked questions go to: www.westberks.gov.uk/recyclingcentres

Welford Parish Council has a vacancy for a councillor. The parish includes the villages of Wickham, Welford, Easton, Weston, Hoe Benham and Halfway with a total population of just over 400. The council are looking for a dedicated parishioner who will contribute to the decision making of the council and to ways of improving life within the parish.
 
Applications should be made to the Locum Parish Clerk, whose contacts details are below.

The garden waste collection service will be suspended from Monday 18 to Friday 29 January 2021. Like many other local authorities across the country, we are facing a difficult January with significantly increased volumes of waste after the Christmas holiday period and a number of collection crews self-isolating. This has impacted parts of our waste collection services meaning we have made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend garden and food waste collections to prioritise rubbish and recycling.
The garden waste collection service will be suspended from Monday 18 to Friday 29 January 2021. We are asking residents whose garden waste is due for collection on or after 18 January 2021 to not put their green garden waste bin out until service can be resumed again from 1 February 2021. This change will also affect food waste collections because they are collected at the same time as garden waste.
Councillor Steve Ardagh-Walter, Executive Member for the Environment at West Berkshire Council, said:
"We have received tremendous support from West Berkshire residents over the past few weeks and I want to thank everyone for their understanding during this challenging time.
"We have not taken this decision lightly to put garden and food waste collections on hold and understand that some residents may be disappointed by this service disruption.
"Our aim is that all waste collection services will be able to continue as normal once the service is reinstated by the end of January. Our contractor's collection crews have continued to work hard throughout, keeping our waste services running and we would like to thank them for doing a great job."
At the close of play on Tuesday 12 January, about 5,300 recycling collections (equivalent to just under 8% of households) remained outstanding. The collection of other waste types including general refuse is being completed without any significant disruptions at this time.
If your rubbish (black bin) or recycling (boxes and bags) is not collected as expected, please continue to leave it out and we will collect it as soon as possible.
We are grateful to residents for their continued patience. We are asking residents to kindly avoid calling our Customer Services colleagues, unless necessary, because they are very busy helping various residents with other urgent queries at this time.
You can read more information on the garden waste service here. Our household waste recycling centres are still open for essential visits but you need to book an appointment.