Town Centre Improvements

Two buildings in the Square have been redecorated. 5 & 7 Winchester Street have been redecorated with support from the SEEDA Paint Your Town's scheme.

A picture of the two building was included in the presentation to gain the grant to show just how bad things were in the centre of Whitchurch.

The frontage of The Old Paper Shop was replaced earlier with SEEDA support.

Charity Shop Does Well

After another successful let of Rotations Charity Shop in London Street, Faithful Hands raised £2,016 in just over 2 weeks.

Parish Hall to Be Sold

The Parish Hall is to be sold by auction. Following discussions with the Vicar, as Chairman of the Administrative Trustees of the Parish Hall, in March the Parish Hall Committee charity found financial backers and made an offer to buy the Hall.

The Vicar responded earlier this month saying that the Hall would be sold by auction; at that stage the estate agent handling the sale said that 18th May was the intended date for the sale. On Tuesday they have confirmed that there will be a sale but it will now probably be in early June.

Gill Webb, longstanding Chairman of the Parish Hall Committee said that she was disappointed that the offer had been turned down but that she still hoped that the Hall could be saved for the community.

New Look Website

It's a while since anything's really changed here, so here's a new look. The site was launched over 4½ years ago, updated 3 years ago and is now attracting on average of over 100 visitors a day (more than 180 on one day earlier this year!).

No public funding has been used for this enhancement but the principles of promoting business and tourism that SEEDA supports have been incorporated as much as is possible. The changes have been made after technical discussions with those who manage other community websites in Hampshire (Bordon & Whitehill and East Hampshire District Council) and their help has been invaluable.

You will note to the left that pride of place has been given to our main tourist attraction, the Silk Mill, clicking on the picture will take you to the Mill's own website, where its latest news and details of its events can be found. Business and tourism information top the list of available pages on this site.

Retail businesses and those on the Ardglen Estate are now to be found on the single Businesses page with space for a picture of the businesses (if you have one that you want displayed, please use the contact page to let me know), plus there's a brand new page just for pub events. Currently ~1,000 visitors per month browse the business and tourism pages and 300 go on to visit the businesses' own web pages.

There's a new business & job information page full of contact details and advice for those in business, wanting to start up in business or looking for a job. The link to Whitchurch's own job seeker's site, Hugo Fox remains. Special offers from the town's business have already been featured for a couple months.

You can now input details of your group, business or event how you want to see them directly into the site (they will be checked before they are published, as you may be aware, there are many who would misuse such a free facility). The contact page remains for any general comments or news items. The offer of a page dedicated to your group, like the Cats' Protection page, is still open.

Car Park Closed

Following the withdrawal of the planning application for a car park on the site of the Railway Hotel, the site is now closed.

The site's owners have been handing out leaflets explaining how they see the situation. But it would appear that the area will remain closed off for a while - not a very attractive entrance to the town for visitors arriving by rail.

You can download a copy of the leaflet here.

Potato Day Funds for Local Charities

Over £2,600 has been handed over to 3 local charities. The Friends of Whitchurch Primary School, the Parish Hall Committee and Hampshire Organic Gardening Group, which all provided helpers at the Potato Day event, have each received a share of the surplus.

The event is now organised under the umbrella of Working4Whitchurch. It has used the event not only to raise funds for local groups but also to provide free stalls to local small traders and visitors for other businesses in the Town, many of which enjoyed much higher levels of trade than would be normal on a cold weekend at the end of January.

Whitchurch as a whole benefits as the event is now reported nationally not only in the gardening press but also on TV.

More Healthy Food in Whitchurch

Another source of free range eggs is available in Whitchurch - with an introductory special offer!

The eggs are available from Tufton Smallholdings and there's an offer of 20p off the first half dozen if you take along the voucher that you can download here.

All of the offerings of Tufton Smallholding and Nursery can be seen on its website.

Hustings

The hustings proved to be a very popular event, hopefully showing that interest in politics in Whitchurch is not dead. A full hall heard from the 4 candidates in the general election, Stanley Oram (UKIP), Sarah Evans (Labour), Tom McCann (Liberal Democrat) and Sir George Young (Conservative).

They were first asked to give their views on the Christian Aid Manifesto and then answered questions from the floor. Each candidate was finally allowed to make a short speech on why he/she should be elected.

The answers were largely predicable, although Sarah Evans (Labour) did seem to express more radical views than those put forward by her party. Audience response came only on the question of immigration which seems to stir passions in some of those attending.

The event was organised by Andrew Smith and chaired by Rev Kelvin Inglis.

Jamie in Whitchurch

There's a chance to join Jamie Oliver's new direct-sales business venture, Jamie at Home, here in Whitchurch.

By running Jamie at Home parties you can earn 15% commission on all sales of Jme collection of kitchen and dinnerware products which are exclusive to the this scheme.

There are full details of the scheme here or you can phone Laura Cole on 07735 255 557.

It's Rambling Time Again

Whitchurch Ramblers' Club's summer programme of Wednesday walks is underway. The next one starts, as ever, from the Bell Street Car park at 7pm and is on 14th April. It's over 5km to Verham Deane via Conolt and graded as medium hardness. So why not give it a go?

Full details of the Club's activities are on its website.

Somerfield Refurbishment

Somerfield's store is to close for major refurbishment for nearly 4 weeks. The changes which will include moving the entrance to near the bus stop on Church Street and installing an ATM will start next Monday (12th) afternoon and be complete in time for reopening at 9am on 6th May. The changes should create more space inside the shop for more lines.

Somerfield's management did try to find an alternative site to maintain a service for its customers but were not able to do so.

Help Rising Fives

Each month Waitrose shops give a grant of £1,000 to local charities. The 'Community Matters' initiative will allocate £1,000 a month to each of Waitrose's 190 branches to distribute amongst three local community projects. The Rising Fives Pre-School Group is one of the projects in the Andover Branch in the Chantry Centre.

Shoppers then get to help decide how the sum is divided amongst the three selected organisations. They will be given a token at the checkout, which they can place in one of three boxes at the store exit, each allocated to a different cause. The amount a cause receives is directly proportional to the number of tokens they receive from customers.

To help the Rising Fives, if you're shopping in Andover, make a purchase, no matter how small in Waitrose and put your token in the Rising Five's slot.

The Marriage Course Coming To Whitchurch

The Marriage Course has been running since 1996 and there are thousands of courses now running around the world. Dan and Vicki Gleed will host the Marriage Course in Whitchurch, supported by All Hallows Church. The course is for any couple, whether they have been together for one or sixty-one years and whether they feel they have a strong relationship or are struggling. Whilst it is based on Christian principles, it is designed for couples with or without a Christian faith. There are 7 sessions which will be run on Monday evenings (7.30 - 9.45pm), from May 10 to June 28 (excluding bank holiday May 31). The venue will depend upon numbers. The cost per couple will depend upon venue and is expected to be between £60.00 and £75.00 for the 7 evenings. Call 893776 to book. Numbers are limited.

You can see the full details here.

General Election Hustings

The impetus for this event has come from Christian Aid, which has asked its supporters to use this opportunity to elicit the policies of the candidates in those areas in which Christian Aid is campaigning at present, namely the contributions made to global poverty by such issues as climate change and international commercial tax dodging. It is All Hallows Church's support of the Countdown to Copenhagen climate change campaign which has led to the arranging of these hustings.

All four candidates in the NW Hampshire constituency have agreed to attend, Sarah Evans (Labour), Tom McCann (Liberal Democrat), Stanley Oram (UK Independence Party) and Sir George Young (Conservative).

The event will take place at 7.30pm on 13 April in the Gill Nethercott Hall. When there should also be the opportunity to discuss another pressing issue of the moment which has also been highlighted at All Hallows, namely the Israel-Palestine conflict and its relationship to other Middle Eastern matters, such as the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Attendees at the hustings should of course feel free to raise any issues which may concern them at this election.