Welcome to Barkham
This web site is about Barkham, an attractive semi-rural area on the outskirts of Wokingham in the county of Berkshire, and is the work of the Barkham Village Residents Association (BVRA).
Our aim is to:
- provide news of what is going on in Barkham and the surrounding area
- supplement the information provided by our BVRA newsletters (4 issues each year)
- provide regular reports on Wokingham Borough Council’s development plan
- develop a stronger local community
Please give us your feedback on the website by clicking here to send a message to our webmaster
Barkham residents invited to attend the debating of the Barkham Square petition at Wokingham Borough Council on 22 November
Wokingham Borough Council will on the 22 November 2018 at 7.00pm be debating the substantial Petition submitted on 20 September, reflecting the concerns of over 4000 residents about over-development in the Barkham area, and in particular any impending plans for up to 1000 houses on Barkham Square.
This is the largest petition ever presented to WBC. Given the strength of feeling from residents, a clear message needs to be given to the Borough that this is not sustainable and 'Enough is Enough'.
Prior and separate to the Debate itself, there will be a 30 minute period allocated for questions from the Public. These will take the form of written questions submitted in advance by residents. To set the scene for the debate a number of Barkham residents have already taken this opportunity to submit certain relevant questions which will be read out and answered by the Executive Members.
Everyone is welcome to attend this full Borough Council meeting and your support will be much appreciated. This is scheduled to take place at WBC's offices at Shute End on 22 November starting at the earlier time of 7.00 pm. Given the ongoing building works outside of WBC, there are various other parking spaces within reasonable proximity, with the closest being Denmark Street car park, Rose Street car park or the Carnival multi-storey, all of which offer free parking after 6.00pm. Please note that the Elms Road multi-storey closes at 6.30pm.
Kind regards,
Barkham Parish Council/ Barkham Village Residents Association
New Barkham Newsletter Editor required – can you help please?
The Barkham Newsletter was started in 1987 and has been produced regularly ever since. I have been editor since 2006 and before that Paul Steel edited for 10 years. I am stepping down as editor at the end of 2018 (after the winter edition) so this is an appeal to Barkham residents for someone to come forward to take on the role. For information, previous newsletters (number 100 onwards) can be viewed on the BVRA website barkham.org.uk.
It is published 4 times per year - Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. The main tasks for the editor for each edition are as follows:
- About 3 weeks before the cut-off copy date, send a calling notice email to the (existing) potential contributors list. A core group contributes articles regularly and others occasionally.
- Receive articles via email, edit as necessary, which can simply be checking the spelling and grammar or more extensive editing if space is tight or if part of the text is not relevant (or perhaps will be out of date at the distribution date).
- Write the Editorial (doesn’t have to be very long!) and design the front cover (I mainly use Powerpoint but it could be any suitable software). If necessary, the BVRA could arrange a software licence.
- When I have all the articles I decide how many pages to allocate, which has to be a multiple of 4. We have had 20 or 24 pages as the norm in recent times but is dependent on the quantity of submissions.
- Finally, I do the newsletter layout with our “publisher” who has the publishing software, which he drives whilst I tell him where I want each article. We take about 2.5 hours in an evening to do the layout.
- When finalised, I email a PDF to the printer who prints and delivers them to Barkham and on to the distributors (the editor is not involved in this)
Finally. sometimes people think of volunteer roles like this as something they may do when they retire. This role should not be seen as only suitable for a retired person with more time to spare! I did it for 10 years before I retired (from a very busy job) and the previous editor also had a full-time career. So, please come forward – don’t wait for someone else to do so! Full training will be provided (not that much is necessary!)
Stewart Richardson
newsletter@barkham.org.uk
Quiz Night
Carols In The Park
Walks around Barkham
The Parish Council have published details of walks in Barkham and the surrounding area on their website. They have also supplied the attached maps of footpaths as updated by Paul Steel.
Click here to see the details on the Parish Council website.
Voice Your Opinion About Barkham
The Barkham Village Residents Association website was re-launched last year. Since then we have focused on bringing you the latest news about Barkham.
The forum has now closed and been replaced by a Facebook disccusion group. To join please visit please visit our Facebook page and then select the Groups option in the lefthand column.
