LRIE is fast turning into the council’s Vietnam

I WAS pleased to see the Newbury town councillor highlighting West Berkshire Council’s woeful handling of the town football pitch (Newbury Weekly News, July 2).

It is disgraceful that a much-used town amenity has been left to rot for two years while WBC dreams of pie in the sky money.

However it is not just the football pitch, but the whole of the London Road Industrial Estate.

It seems WBC have not learnt the lesson of greed from their earlier visions of growing money trees in unicorn land.

The cost to the taxpayer of their failed and illegal St Modwen scheme in reality was probably well over £1m. Does that bother them? Of course not. It wasn’t their money.

Instead of heads rolling they press on with new consultants Avison Young. They must have been over the moon to get a deal during lockdown worth £85,000 where it didn’t matter what they came up with because it would have been as meaningless as words written on water since they didn’t have to think about the major practicalities of rubber-stamping the council’s misguided illusions.

Their brief was to assume the football pitch wasn’t there.

They also did not have to concern themselves with practicalities like utilities.

So where will the football pitch move to?

Oh, didn’t I mention more consultants at a cost of £18,000 tasked with putting a pin in a map anywhere where there is enough space to put a pitch?

Did anyone think about the sheer cost of creating a new football pitch, clubhouse and stands, plus any other associated infrastructure such as roads and car park?

Why do Avison Young not have to think about utilities?

The utilities such as drainage form a large part of planning law for both surface water and sewage.

Nowadays the surface water runoff can’t be just dumped into a drain or nearby river without being attenuated so as to not cause more possibility of flooding downstream.

This tends to be expensive and can also take up a lot of space, meaning less space for rabbit hutch-style affordable housing.

The other main problem with drainage on the LRIE is foul water drainage. Faraday Road is home to a very old pumping station that pumps sewage through a high-pressure pipe to the Thatcham sewage works.

This pipe has burst three times lately. It would be logical to realise if it can’t handle the pressure now, then it won’t be able to when there is a mass of extra homes in its area.

What is the cost of a new pumping station and pipe all the way to the sewage works?

A holistic plan including infrastructure is needed from WBC for the whole estate with proper costings of the work.

Without this, piecemeal attempts at developments such as on the old NWN site are doomed to failure and more waste of money.

LRIE is fast turning into the council’s Vietnam.

However, past experience tells us that when the council is in a hole it just buys more shovels.

JOHN GOTELEE

London Road

Newbury