Weather stays fine for Spring Clean

A team of willing volunteers assembled in the Bell Street car park on Sunday dressed for the worst, but the morning rain held off while they scoured the Town's streets for the Winter's collection of rubbish.

Mike Stead again organised the event and sent the 3 teams off ably supported by PC Paula Osmond looking after road safety and Basingstoke & Deane's collection vehicle.

Testbourne School Classes Hit by Teachers' Strike

Pupils in Testbourne's years 7 and 8 had an extra day's holiday this week because of the teachers' strike action. Year 9, 10 and 11 pupils were not effected.

Testbourne School Planning Application

The planning application to build houses on Testbourne School grounds off Micheldever Road which has been referred to the Development Control Committee will not now be on the agenda for 7 May.

There are discussions with the applicant which are not yet complete, so the matter is expected to be tabled at a future Committee Meeting.

Town Bridge

Progress is being made on the replacement for the old Town Bridge. A statement from Hampshire County Council is below (edited to remove 1st person references). The picture shows the type of single span bridge being proposed. It doesn't have the pier in the centre that the old one did.

All officers involved with this project are aware of its importance, particularly for access to the local schools. Every effort is being made to arrange for a new bridge to be installed as soon as possible. There are however certain considerations, procedures and consents that must be explored and obtained prior to proceeding, unfortunately this can be a lengthy process.

The cost of the new bridge is approximately £22,000 which is excluding the cost of foundations. This is clearly a significant sum of money and it has therefore been necessary to firstly secure funding and secondly to go through a tendering process to ensure that Hampshire County Council obtains value for money. A contractor has now been appointed to manufacture and supply the bridge. The contractor is based locally in Stockbridge and has supplied many bridges to Hampshire County Council in the past. Officers in HCC's Bridge Office have been in contact with local residents and landowners to discuss the bridge design. HCC has requested electronic copies of the plans and also photographs of similar bridges supplied by the contractor. Once received these details will be circulated.

HCC is now awaiting a method statement* from the contractor and final drawings. This technical information is necessary to satisfy HCC's requirements as well as those of the Environment Agency, Natural England and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council. Although preliminary discussions have taken place with these statutory bodies in an attempt to speed up the approval process, it is obviously not possible to apply for full approval until such time as a contractor has been selected and the full plans supplied. A 6 month extension to the Temporary Closure for this section of the path was recently granted. The 6 month closure period commenced on 11th April. HCC is confident that the bridge will be open and available to the public prior to October 08, however this period of closure should cover all eventualities.

Subject to receiving the necessary consents, work to install the bridge abutments is planned to take place during July. This will be followed by the construction of the bridge. HCC's intended completion date is the end of August 2008 and the new bridge will therefore be available for the start of the new school term.

HCC will endeavour to make sure the bridge is completed on time with as little disruption as possible.

* A method statement is a detailed technical description of how the work will be done.

Annual Town Assembly

This year's Assembly will take place in the Gill Nethercott Hall at 7.30pm on 29 April.

There will be reports from the Town Council, Borough and County Councillors and Local Groups and Organisations. The Guest Speaker this year will be Mr. Tommy Carr Group Manager for Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service on Whitchurch Fire Station Action Plan 2008 - 2009.

Everyone is welcome to come along and hear what's been happening - and what will happen - in the Town.

Grants Available

The Big Lottery Fund is offering grants of £2,000 - £500,000 as part of the Changing Spaces Programme to local groups, charities and even some businesses.

The sorts of areas they are funding are:

• Community food growing projects and gardens
• Community parks and gardens
• Town squares and village greens
• Pond/access to green space
• Churchyards Nature reserves
• Green heating systems and energy efficiency measures
• Wildlife-rich natural places.

Details can be downloaded here.

Adult Care - What Do You Think

Hampshire County Council is planning (like all local authorities) to revamp its Adult Services. You can let the council know what you think.

The country’s ageing population and increasing numbers of adults with physical or learning disabilities, are placing additional pressure on the social care system and its ability to cope with demand. And there is the need to think about how this extra demand will be paid for and provided. Over the next three years, the Government requires local authorities to provide care and support that is tailored to everyone who needs it. This will include offering them personal budgets. By having a personal budget people will be able to choose how their own needs can be met. These changes will impact on and affect all of us, maybe not today or tomorrow but in the future.

Some questions that have already been raised include:

• Are you worried about selling your home to pay for care?
• Should the state pay towards social care for every person who needs it regardless of how rich or poor they are?
• Would you be prepared to match what the council pays towards the cost of your care?
• Would you like to receive money to arrange your own care with support and advice rather than having the care organised for you?

In Hampshire, the County Council wants to hear from anyone, including staff, about their views, stories and experiences of Adult social care. It has begun a Commission of Inquiry and throughout a series of public hearings is gathering evidence from local people, carers and national experts about their experiences and the challenges facing care services. Your views and opinions will help inform this process.

Write to:

The Personalisation Commission team Adult Services
FREEPOST SO2077
Winchester SO23 8BR

Visit: www.hants.gov.uk/adult-services/commission-personalisation

Email: personalisation.commission@hants.gov.uk

Telephone: 01962 847200

Whitchurch is Tops Internationally

Google, worldwide, recognises Whitchurch. A number of recent hits on this website generated by Google searches in places like Poland on the one word "whitchurch" brings up the Town Council's site together with this one as the top 2 in the world!

Other Whitchurchs in England and Canada follow further down the page.

Spring Clean 2008

Yet again, Mike Stead has organised a Spring Clean for Sunday 27th April. Please turn up ready for a couple of hours of healthy outdoor work at the Bell Street Car Park at 1pm.

Those who survive the event will meet in the White Hart for a celebratory drink.

Election Question Time

A Question Time session has been arranged for 7pm on 28 April in the Gill Nethercott Hall. Both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties will be represented, so come along and ask your questions of the candidates in the 1 May Borough Council elections.

The event is free but a donation to pay for the hire of the hall would be appreciated.

Estate Agent Pulls Out of Whitchurch

Just as other business premises are improving their frontages and interiors in the Town centre, Redwoods has left its premises on The Square.

Redwoods' Operations Manager said that the decline in business had caused the closure of the office. A polite request to leave the windows clean and not to so obviously show that the building was not occupied was refused. The Operations Manager said that it was common practice and we should get used to premises in a similar state in high streets given the current economic downturn.

He did however state that there had already been several shows of interest in taking over the lease and expected new tenants to be in place by the end of the month.

Progress on Town Bridge

Hampshire County Council has just awarded the contract for replacing the bridge. But there are many "bridges yet to be crossed" in the form of consent from various bodies before work can start.

An HCC representative says that "Realistically we are still a few months away from installation".

Spring Flower Show Cancelled

The warm weather to date the year meant that all but a few of the Spring flowers so recently seen in bloom around the Town have finished - so there weren't enough to stage a show.

There were lots of children's entries in the class for Spring drawings and paintings so this will be added to the Summer Show Schedule.

To those who prepared entries, the Garden Association apologies and will try and get the timing right next year!

Old Library Development

The applications to build 3 flats and 3 maisonettes on the Old Library site in Bell Lane have been withdrawn.

Of over 80 letters sent to neighbours and other interested parties, only 8 responses for one application and 12 in the other were received by B&DBC, all were against the development.

The developers are believed to be changing the environmental aspects of the application and will then resubmit them - it is common practice when a developer expects objections to submit multiple applications which can mean that those concerned may only object to one of the applications.

New Parking Proposals - Update

In the first 3 days of the plans being on-line, around 50 users have downloaded one or more of the plans for parking restriction changes. Copies are available in the Town Hall and on line here.

Most interest appears to centre around the proposals for the Town Centre, the Winchester Road/Micheldever Road, Wells Lane and Fairfields/Berehill.

The major changes seem to be in the areas of the Micheldever Road/Winchester Road Junction with double yellow lines and Berehill/Fairfields with the introduction of limited waiting and permit parking.

There are 8 areas each with its own plan some needs lots of magnification (and rotating counterclockwise to read):

Comments can be made until 1 May in writing to Ian James, Civic Offices, London Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 4AH or ian.janes@basingstoke.gov.uk