She’s been a familiar sight on the streets of Newbury for years, but town traffic warden Mandy Bell hung up her ticket pad and pen on Saturday to start her retirement. Her patch has been taken over by Gloria Evans.

Building mania in Newbury

West Berkshire has the second busiest planning department in the Thames Valley. District planners have been handling more than 50 applications a week in the year to March, and handled 77% within the target 8 weeks.

Fewer applications are going through the committee system these days, with 86% ruled on by planning officials rather than councillors.

The turnaround times are broadly in line with other English councils, after West Berkshire Council raised its game, following threats from Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott that the department could be taken under supervision.

Fairground attraction

A funfair will take place in Victoria Park for the week starting July 23. Fairground operator J Stokes are expected to set up in town to keep youngsters occupied during the summer holidays.

School dinners

School catering firm Dolce Catering has been awarded the school meal contract for 68 primary and secondary schools in West Berkshire.

Dolce has worked with schools in Cumbria, Hackney and York, and won through a beauty contest between three catering firms. For the past two years, Hampshire County Council outsourced its catering arm HC3 to the Newbury area.

John Chapman, Chairman of West Berkshire Council said, "We welcome Dolce. The company has an excellent record of supplying quality food, which is value for money. The importance they place in providing nutritious meals is both impressive and reassuring and we look forward to a fruitful partnership. I share Dolce's belief in the benefit to children of good food in the middle of the school day and hope that we can increase the number of children taking up the offer of healthy school meals."

New café for Newbury

Newbury department store Camp Hopson is expected to open its new 100-seater café Josephs on Wednesday. The first-floor food outlet is designed to impress shoppers with views over Victoria Park.