Parish Hall – The Way Forward

At the AGM last night, the committee revealed important news about the future of the Hall. Following lengthy discussions with the Hall’s landlord, the Administrative Trustees of Whitchurch Parish Hall, agreement has been reached to negotiate a price for the Committee’s purchase of the Hall.

Secretary, Nick Reynolds, tried to give a detailed breakdown of the way the Hall was funded showing that it was making a small trading profit and the targets for obtaining more revenue in the future.

The Chairman thanked all those who had donated in cash or kind to the refurbishment and a “Roll of Honour” of those who have made a contribution will be published.

More details and a copy of the Committee’s Forward Plan and financial report are on the Hall’s website.

Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal 2009

In 2008 the Royal British Legion Whitchurch Branch contributed £3,654.00 to the grand total of the £101.2m spent on the welfare and services of those service men/women and families in need. Official Poppy Appeal organiser for Whitchurch, Christine Lynn, commends the admirable amount raised last year, but believes that with additional help the collection total for 2009 could be significantly greater.

Despite the hard work of a small band of volunteers additional help would be very much appreciated. Contact Christine Lynn on 893072 for details.

Please give as generously as you can to this important cause. Numerous boxes will be positioned around the town and door to door collections will take place as usual. Gift Aid envelopes will be available. Anyone collecting on behalf of the charity will be carrying a signed authorization card so do check if you are concerned.

Unusual Vehicle Sighting

A vehicle not seen in Whitchurch for many a long month was spotted on 25th September. A Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council road sweeper has been removing some of the months' accumulation of detritus from some of the roads in Whitchurch. Even parts of the Square have been missed and in some places the sweeper didn't remove all the solidified rubbish. Are the streets in the centre of Basingstoke left for so long between visits?

When will the car parks be tidied up? Several thousand pounds was spent on refurbishing Bell Street car Park but the weeds have been allowed to grow in and around the newly planned beds. Again, do we get the same level of treatment as similar places in Basingstoke centre or do we have to pay extra via the Parish Precept to have the cleaning done?

Doggy Problems

Several dog owners are upset about a new ruling that the Town Council has brought in to ban dogs from the grassed areas of the Kingsley Park and Alliston Road recreation areas. Dogs were previous banned from the area immediately around the swings and other apparatus, which they accept as reasonable.

The protesters claim that the ban means that parents of young children cannot take their dogs with them when they go to supervise the children's play anywhere in the Town. This does leave the Millennium Meadow for families to play together with their pets. This is not ideal for those living in the north of the Town and there are no pieces of play equipment there. In addition to the ban itself, those complaining say that there has been no consultation.

You can take part in a poll on whether dogs should be banned from ALL parts of the Council controlled play areas on the forum - you'll need to sign up to the forum to vote.

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New Business

A new business is moving into Whitchurch. Dolls House Hampshire is currently refurbishing the "old chapel" in Winchester Street with a mezzanine floor already in place.

Map Success

The new Town Centre Map is proving to be a success. In the last month there have been almost 200 downloads from this site and a sample of those looking at the copy outside Glass Foolery shows that all appreciate it, some did suggest it would be better done in watercolours - so there's scope for a local artist.

As it says on the bottom of the map, if you have any comments or suggestions for changes please use the contact page as it can be reasonably easily updated, which sadly wouldn't be the case if it were painted. Eric Dunlop is working on the installation of a third notice board in Winchester Road Car Park which also have a copy of the map.

He has also taken on the thorny problem of getting permission for boards to be put near the A34 to let potential tourists know what Whitchurch has to offer. This is especially important now that the Highways Agency are about to remove the Silk Mill sign. The funding will come from the SEEDA grant which was initially earmarked for large brown tourist signs on the A34. Unfortunately the HA insists that before you put up a sign to attract tourists your must be able to prove that you have a large number of tourists! So one QANGO gave a grant to do what another won't allow - is there scope for financial savings there?

Dog Day

More dogs than usual were on the the Millennium Green on Sunday. Thelma Cornwell organised yet another highly successful event with attempts to find the happiest, best groomed and hunkiest dog amongst many competitions. Roy Dykes was responsible for judging and a total of over £70 was raised which goes to Millennium Meadow funds.

As usual the results didn't seem important, particularly as several of the competitors ate the sausages in the Sausage and Spoon race; the owners, their children and their dogs all seemed to be enjoying the day. A couple of the competitors and one activity are below, here's a whole page full.

New Facilities in the Business Centre

The Whitchurch Business Centre can now print posters up to A0 in colour. This facility is unique in the Town for small quantities, John Dollins provides an excellent service for larger quantities.

Prices start at £2.50 for an A1 black and white poster. This service is in addition to all the other services offered to businesses, groups and individuals, visit the website or call 896548 for more information

Folk in Whitchurch

The second Folk Festival Reunion was bigger than last year's event and deemed another success. This year's event included music both the Harvest Home and the Kings Arms on Saturday and Sunday and attracted enthusiasts new and old from well outside Whitchurch.

Sue Rampton, co-organiser with Martin Watson, threatened, whilst relaxing over a well earned drink after the event, that it could well return next year.

Rural Features of Whitchurch

The joys of the countryside as typified by the harvest moon have been balanced by some truly rural smells for the last couple of days as local farmers do what they do after the harvest and prior to ploughing for the next crop.

Although not truly the Harvest Moon (the full moon nearest the Autumn Solstice) the light cloud covering has made the views of this full moon worth savouring.

Festival Supports TheWhitchurchWeb

One of the beneficiaries of the funds distributed by the Whitchurch Festival Committee was TheWhitchurchWeb (on its 4th birthday!).

This website was created in an attempt to provide information to Whitchurch folk about what is available in the Town. For instance there are:

• 70 weekly or fortnightly meetings run by groups and organisations
• around 30 less regular events each month
• 84 groups
• 22 industries
• 222 businesses offering retail goods or services

The information that is useful to Townsfolk is also of interest to visitors (or potential visitors) and this means that it attracts around 70 "real" visitors to the site each day (it's very easy to over count visitors - so I take the most pessimistic of 3 systems that track visitors). The site now contains more than 200 pages and has over 600 pictures - these figures doesn't include the forum, which has some 4,500 messages from ~65 members (the other 40 just read the other's posts).

The very welcome donation from the Festival Committee (that is to say money from the folk of Whitchurch) is the first support the site has received and is paying for the hosting of the site until this time next year - so thank you Whitchurch - if there's anything that you would like on the site, please use the contact page.

Festival Fund Donations

In a break in the annual Whitstock Music Festival, several local organisations received cheques from the Carnival Queen and Princess. The funds came from the funds raised during the Summer at the Beer race, the Carnival Procession and the Carnival Fun Day.

Those receiving grants this year are, Cats Protection League, Friends of Whitchurch Silk Mill, Hampshire Cycle Training, Jordan Lucas, Millennium Green, Oak Tree Nursery, Rising Fives, Singing for Fun, Sustainability Forum, thewhitchurchweb, WADS, Whitchurch Ambulance Station, Whitchurch Arts, Whitchurch Brownies, Whitchurch Community Police, Whitchurch Fire Service, Whitchurch Parish Hall.

Rob Dunlop, the Festival Committee's Chairman also explained that a celebratory meal for 100 of the Town's senior citizens is to be paid for from the funds would take place on 14 November in the Parish Hall and feature an extract from WADS forthcoming play, music from Singing for Fun and a Cheney and Allen routine performed by local volunteers.

Whitstock With Beer

A full house (inside and out) at the Longmeadow Sports and Social Club appreciated the musical feast laid on, as ever, by Keith Bell. A whole day of music was enhanced by local real ale provided by CAMRA.

Strangely Keith's fortnightly acoustic music sessions at the Bell will not be held on the day after Whitstock, the next one will be at 4pm on 13 September, again with alcohol on hand!

Changes to Bus Timetables

New timetables for 76 and 86 buses come into effect on 6 September. The good news is that all the services remain in place BUT there are slight changes to the timings of some services ranging from 10 minutes later to 6 minutes earlier. Saturday timings are now different from the Monday - Friday equivalents.

The new timetable is on-line here.

Whitchurch on TV

The Red House appeared on BBC 2 on Thursday's Trust Me I'm a Dealer. The programme is still available to be seen on the web.

See the antiques that Sandra Bryant bought!