| Council planners have been told to take a break from overseeing the redevelopment of Newbury, and spend a day on a fact-finding tour of.....Cardiff.
Newbury.net can reveal that around 60 West Berkshire Council staff will be whisked off to investigate the Millennium stadium and other new developments in the regeneration of the Welsh capital.
The move is likely to infuriate the Liberal Democrats, who were roundly thrashed in the May elections by Tory pledges to keep council tax "as low as possible."
But many big decisions for Newbury's future are looming. The racecourse is soon to seek permission to build 1400 houses, and there are imminent plans to build a further 1200 properties on St Bartholomew's Wormestall campus, the Stirling Industrial Estate and Market Street.
So the planners will be looking at how Cardiff City Council managed to turn the city centre into a top destination in less than a decade. | 
