7,000 food parcels delivered
A community group has delivered more than 7,000 free food packages to homes in Colnbrook during the ongoing pandemic.
Colnbrook Cares is a group of 20 volunteers who successfully applied to Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN)’s Resilient Communities Fund.
The group received a £3,000 award in the spring to enable them to establish their support centre and food distribution scheme.
Since then, the group has sourced
and distributed packages to 100 homes three times a week during peak periods and set aside additional packages to help those self-isolating to celebrate VE Day and Christmas.
Its ongoing voluntary work has also helped support the efforts of other local organisations, Slough Council for Voluntary Service (SCVS) and Slough Outreach.
Chair of Colnbrook Cares, Puja Bedi said: “We knew there was a
need for more support for Colnbrook’s more vulnerable residents, and the assistance from villagers and SSEN meant we were able to act quickly, leaflet-dropping every home in our community to let them know we were there.”
Anthony Urquhart, SSEN’s Head of Region, said: “The scale of the volunteers’ efforts is testament to how much a small group of people can achieve when they know how much their community is relying on their help.”
A finance chief’s work developing a unique vaccine in Scotland is enriched by “phenomenal” public support.
Working daily with the vaccine task force, father of two David Lawrence leads discussions with the UK Government around manufacture and roll-out of his biotech company’s “inactivated adjuvante” COVID-19 vaccine that saw Livingston-based Valneva “take a different approach”.
He commented: “We’ll ensure absolutely we’ve got a safe and effective vaccine. I think people should feel very encouraged. They should be very confident the safety profile will be absolutely fine.”
The CFO’s 14 year-old daughter Sophie is remote learning while son Cameron, 18, is a university student. “In terms of the support from my family and friends, it’s been phenomenal,” he said.
“You see neighbours and they say ‘great job, keep up the good work’ and that’s all very supportive.
“I feel very blessed to be involved, being some sort of partner in the overall solution.”
SLOUGH: A landlord who built unlawful extensions and crammed 14 people into his home has been ordered to give up more than £100,000 in rent or face prison.
Jagtar Phagura ignored planning permission requirements and created five extra bedrooms at a three-bed property he owned in Mirador Crescent and filled them with renters.
A judge has now ordered the 64-year-old to forfeit the money he earned, £109,273.16, within three months or spend 18 months in jail.
Phagura appeared at a confiscation hearing at Reading Crown Court on Thursday, February 11.
The court heard how in 2015 his three-bed property was extended to the side and rear, as well as a loft conversion, without the relevant planning permission.
This created five extra rooms, each of which could be rented out by single people or couples.
Some rooms contained three beds and a total of 14 people were discovered living in the property.
Slough Borough Council’s planning enforcement team issued an order for the unauthorised building work to be demolished in August 2015.
But Phagura ignored the statutory notice and continued to collect rent from people living in the rooms in the unlawful extensions.
The council prosecuted him and he admitted failing to comply with the planning enforcement notice contrary to Section 179(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 at Reading Magistrates’ Court in November 2019.
In September retrospective planning permission was granted for two of the previous five rooms in the extended part of the house.
WINDSOR: Plans for a luxurious house incorporating the ruins of a Victorian mansion destroyed by an explosion were unanimously approved on Wednesday, writes James Bagley, Local Democracy Reporter.
The two-storey contemporary family house will be built on St Leonard’s Hill, Windsor, and will incorporate the ruins of the colonnade of the 18th century ‘French Chateau’ mansion.
Not only will the ancient structures be part of the luxurious home it will also come with stables and a new ‘wild’ swimming pool.
To outweigh concerns about the development’s impact on the green belt, the applicant provided a ‘woodland management plan’, which provides details on how they will enhance, monitor, and maintain nearby veteran trees, landscape, and biodiversity for future generations.
Each tree has its own specific management plan with an annual health check.
This quashed the planning officers’ concerns and decided the scheme outweighs that harm and believe a ‘very special circumstance’ exists.
Panel members praised the plans for not only protecting the ruins – but for its sustainability and support in reaching zero carbon by adding in solar panels.
Councillor Amy Tisi (Lib Dem, Clewer East) said it was “rare” and “refreshing” to see an application as exciting to look at come before the planning panel.
She said: “I was really thrilled to see the sustainable design, the biodiversity, the use of the solar panels, and the net carbon zero target I think is just fantastic.
“We adopted our climate change strategy, and this is exactly the sort of thing we should be encouraging in the borough.”
She added: “Every generation has influenced and impacted on the site and I think the latest generation will have the contemporary look – but it’s woven in as you get that history still coming through from the site.”
Councillor David Hilton (Con, Ascot & Sunninghill) said he was ‘envious’ of the future occupiers, while councillor Leo Walters (Con, Bray) called it ‘the most easily approval application’ he’s seen in a long time.
The old mansion was built in the early 18th century and was largely destroyed by an explosion and fire sometime in the 1920s, resulting in large quantities of dressed and decorated blocks of stone strewn across the site. The well-liked application was greenlit by members of the Royal Borough development management panel on Wednesday.