Newbury's extended town-centre pedestrianisation trial has been paused early, sparking a furious backlash from the West Berkshire Conservative opposition at last night's executive meeting.
The Greens called it a 'fiasco five years in the making'. Green leader David Marsh said: "We have gone from the Newbury BID [Business Improvement District] saying there was 80 per cent support for a 24/7 pedestrianisation scheme - a statistic backed by a Newbury town council survey."
He added: "We then got the Newbury town centre 'vision' which is now being refreshed - which means parking and hoping people will forget about it by the next election." Marsh also asked: "Why didn't you launch this with a series of events to enable the people of Newbury to enjoy the absence of traffic such as late night shopping, a street party?"
The council's portfolio holder for economic development, Justin Pemberton, said a lot of time had been spent talking to the hospitality trade and stressed the point of a trial is to learn. "I do not want this scheme to go away," he said. "We haven't scrapped anything, we have paused it and we will go out and consult again as part of the refreshed Newbury town centre masterplan."
The trial will stop in September and the masterplan process is expected to take at least a year.
The Conservatives called the decision a humiliating political U-turn, accusing the administration of "hopeless spin" and managed messaging after months of insisting the trial was a success.
More than 3,100 consultation responses were submitted, with reports that more than three quarters of survey respondents objected. Internal analysis later acknowledged there was "no clear retail uplift", with spending below expectations and no measurable increase in footfall.
Leader of the Conservative Group Ross Mackinnon said: "This entire episode has exposed a Liberal Democrat administration that simply cannot run the council competently."
He added: "The administration spent months insisting the trial was working, talking up supposed economic benefits and trying to dismiss legitimate concerns from residents, businesses, disabled groups and town centre users. Now, after overwhelming public opposition and mounting evidence of failure, they are quietly retreating while pretending this was always the plan. This has been chaos from start to finish; poor decision-making, contradictory messaging, weak evidence and endless political spin. At a time when residents expect the council to focus on core services and sound financial management, the Liberal Democrats instead pursued an expensive and divisive vanity project which they are now trying to quietly back away from. The most damaging part of this entire process is the growing sense that this administration starts with a political objective and then works backwards to justify it, regardless of the evidence or the views of residents."
The council says any future pedestrianisation ideas will be folded into the refreshed Newbury town centre masterplan, being developed alongside plans for the Kennet Shopping Centre Old Town quarter.
Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter
