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).