Welcome
This website has been created for the residents of Abbotts Barton and surrounding areas so that you can keep up to-date with what's going on.
Apart from news you can find information about events, campaigns, and how to contact councillors.
Abbotts Barton Community Group is a community association which serves the people of Abbotts Barton and aims to act as a community anchor organisation. The main areas of work for the Group are:
- ☐ To enable residents to find out how we can make where we live even better and do something about it.
- ☐ To run events and activities for the benefit of inhabitants of Abbotts Barton.
- ☐ To strengthen community participation.
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| Big Lunch 2014 |
If you should be interested in helping out at events, as a street champion, or as a Councillor's Surgery visitor, please don't hesitate to get in touch! Also let us know if you have some ideas for events or skills that could be useful (e.g. face painting at the picnics)! Read more about how you can help on our Get Involved page!
Monday 27 May 2013
Photo shoot in Abbotts Barton
Today the Save The Parks group have organised a photo shoot with the press. If you are concerned about the loss of parkland in Abbotts Barton be there at 3pm! More information on the STP website.
Friday 24 May 2013
Big Lunch - what will you bring along?
Our Big Lunch is only about a week away (Sunday 2 June, 12-3pm), let's hope the weather will play along! I am planning on making some more experimental German style cake to bring along for everyone to have a try! Last year's cakes seemed to be appreciated, let's see if I can repeat that. That said, don't forget, you don't have to bring something for everyone, a plate of food for yourself will be just fine. If you do plan to bring anything along to share, why don't you let us know in the comments! :)
Thursday 16 May 2013
Abbotts Barton Walkabout
A couple of weeks ago a letter arrived at this house for some people that must have lived here as council tenants even before the previous owners from whom we bought the house. It was about an Estate Walkabout in Abbotts Barton that happened yesterday (yes, sorry, I should have put this up here as an event I guess but timing was bad with me setting up the website just then).
According to the letter, these "Walkabouts are organised twice a year to look at council housing areas and to identify any problems, possible improvements or issues of concern. There may be issues with communal areas, graffiti, public footpaths, landscaping, communal gardens, un-taxed cars, garage sites or any other issues affecting the overall condition of the estate."
It seemed that this Walkabout was only meant for council tenants but since I was curious and had seen other area Walkabouts advertised on the Winchester City Council Twitter and Facebook sites, I sent an email on 2 May to the Tenant Participation Officer who had sent out the letter. I wanted a) to find out whether anybody could take part and b) to tell the sender that we have set up the Abbotts Barton Community Group as some of the issues they might find (if there are any) could possibly also be something that is going to be discussed in and forwarded to the council via our group, so it would be very interesting to hear from them about their findings and what will be done about them so that we can possibly ‘save our breath’ on some items. Well, to this day I did not get an answer.
This morning I bumped into a lady from the estate who took part and was able to tell me a little bit about what happened. Apparently only two people from Abbotts Barton were there for the Walkabout and there were also two people from the council, one explicitly from Housing. It was made very clear by the council people that they didn't want to talk about the housing development, so they concentrated on other issues like footpaths that have become difficult to navigate because of tree roots (thinking of people in mobility scooters) or trees that block out light for people in their houses.
If you happen to be an Abbotts Barton council tenant and you didn't get the invitation to the Walkabout but have some concerns you would like to report, you can call your Area Housing Manager Michaela Knowles on 01962 848506 (as per the information given in the letter).
According to the letter, these "Walkabouts are organised twice a year to look at council housing areas and to identify any problems, possible improvements or issues of concern. There may be issues with communal areas, graffiti, public footpaths, landscaping, communal gardens, un-taxed cars, garage sites or any other issues affecting the overall condition of the estate."
It seemed that this Walkabout was only meant for council tenants but since I was curious and had seen other area Walkabouts advertised on the Winchester City Council Twitter and Facebook sites, I sent an email on 2 May to the Tenant Participation Officer who had sent out the letter. I wanted a) to find out whether anybody could take part and b) to tell the sender that we have set up the Abbotts Barton Community Group as some of the issues they might find (if there are any) could possibly also be something that is going to be discussed in and forwarded to the council via our group, so it would be very interesting to hear from them about their findings and what will be done about them so that we can possibly ‘save our breath’ on some items. Well, to this day I did not get an answer.
This morning I bumped into a lady from the estate who took part and was able to tell me a little bit about what happened. Apparently only two people from Abbotts Barton were there for the Walkabout and there were also two people from the council, one explicitly from Housing. It was made very clear by the council people that they didn't want to talk about the housing development, so they concentrated on other issues like footpaths that have become difficult to navigate because of tree roots (thinking of people in mobility scooters) or trees that block out light for people in their houses.
If you happen to be an Abbotts Barton council tenant and you didn't get the invitation to the Walkabout but have some concerns you would like to report, you can call your Area Housing Manager Michaela Knowles on 01962 848506 (as per the information given in the letter).
Thursday 9 May 2013
First meeting!
The first meeting took place on Tuesday 18 April 2013 at the Rugby Club and so far the group are meeting on an irregular schedule. We are currently looking for a meeting room within the area that would allow us to meet more regularly.
We have identified improvements to do with facilities and safety and we have drafted an Improvement Plan that focuses on these priorities. The plan will be added to/amended at following meetings.
Meeting notes and other resources can be found on the DOCUMENTS tab.
If you would like to get in contact please use the form on the CONTACT tab.
We have identified improvements to do with facilities and safety and we have drafted an Improvement Plan that focuses on these priorities. The plan will be added to/amended at following meetings.
Meeting notes and other resources can be found on the DOCUMENTS tab.
If you would like to get in contact please use the form on the CONTACT tab.
Welcome!
Welcome to the new website of the Abbotts Barton Community Group.
We are a group of residents from the Abbotts Barton area of Winchester, United Kingdom.
The purpose of the group is to act as representatives of the community in order to achieve improvements for the benefit of the community.
Our aim is to give the community a voice so that we can address local issues with the council. Apart from that we would like to help people to meet and get to know each other better by promoting community events like the BIG LUNCH on 2 June 2013. This one and other events can be found on the EVENTS tab of this site.
(Existing local groups such as the Abbotts Barton Community Development Action Group and the Save The Parks group are focusing on the new homes development proposals in Abbotts Barton. The Abbotts Community Group recognises that there may be some overlap as issues or more specific proposals emerge. We can decide on what we want to do about those as they arise.)
We are a group of residents from the Abbotts Barton area of Winchester, United Kingdom.
The purpose of the group is to act as representatives of the community in order to achieve improvements for the benefit of the community.
Our aim is to give the community a voice so that we can address local issues with the council. Apart from that we would like to help people to meet and get to know each other better by promoting community events like the BIG LUNCH on 2 June 2013. This one and other events can be found on the EVENTS tab of this site.
(Existing local groups such as the Abbotts Barton Community Development Action Group and the Save The Parks group are focusing on the new homes development proposals in Abbotts Barton. The Abbotts Community Group recognises that there may be some overlap as issues or more specific proposals emerge. We can decide on what we want to do about those as they arise.)
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