Quick news roundup

If you would like to keep up-to-date with news relevant to Abbotts Barton, you can follow us on Twitter or Facebook. As of today, the Abbotts Barton Community Group's news retweets can also be seen on this blog at the right in the sidebar. However it would simply be too much work to post every single news item on the blog, therefore we might do the occasional roundup when it's worth it, like today:

BBC News: The Westgate School's £7.8m expansion unveiled

Hampshire County Council: Design plans approved for The Westgate School transformation

Hampshire Chronicle: New scheme to support the elderly in Winchester

Hampshire Chronicle: Winchester City Council pressing forward with River Park plans


Oh, and don't forget, next week Thursday at 7:30pm is the next Councillor's Surgery for our ward!

Winchester Town Forum discussion items

Looking through the last Winchester Town Forum meeting notes from 12 June 2013, I found a number of interesting items that are important to the Forum and that will/should be discussed in upcoming meetings (information found in meeting notes on 12 June meeting page):

• 20mph speed limits scheduled to be discussed at the next Winchester Town Forum meeting on 11 September 2013;

• Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and, in particular, agreeing a list of priorities for the Town area;

• Housing and in particular, provision of new Council homes in the Town area; 

• Vision for Winchester – review of action plans, with the area around the railway station to be considered first. 

• Consideration of improvements for pedestrians and links with the Winchester Town Access Plan;

• Governance issues regarding the future role of the Town Forum and the implications of the Barton Farm development; 

• Public transport; 

• Replacement of River Park Leisure Centre.

The Forum also agreed that additional public meetings should be arranged to enable discussions on particular topics of interest/concern to Winchester residents. The Corporate Director suggested that it would be feasible to organise two such meetings within the forthcoming Municipal Year. Following discussions, the following subjects were suggested as suitable topics for public meetings:

• Silver Hill development; 

• New Council housing; 

• Winchester High Street Markets and high street trading in general; 

• Replacement of the Leisure Centre. 

As only two public meetings were to be organised, the Forum agreed that the first meeting be held in the autumn on the subject of a replacement for a Leisure Centre. The second meeting could be arranged for early 2014 on new Council home provision.

The next Winchester Town Forum meeting: 
Wednesday 11 September 2013 at 6:30 PM
Walton Suite, Guildhall, Winchester
The Agenda and Reports for this meeting will be available for viewing on 3 September 2013

Any member of the Public can attend Council Meetings. You are entitled to ask questions; for more information on Public Participation please click here.

Upcoming Council meetings

If you are interested in what's going on in Abbotts Barton you might like to know the dates for the next Council meetings.

Upcoming meetings that might include relevant items for the planned housing development in Abbotts Barton:

26/06/2013 - 10.00AM - Cabinet
Click on the date to see location plus meeting agenda and reports.

15/07/2013 - 10.00AM - Cabinet (Housing Delivery) Committee
Agenda and reports to be available from 5 July.
(See explanation on the Save The Parks site.)

The more people attend these meetings the better - we need to show that we are interested in what is happening in our estate!

(This information and more is always available on the Save The Parks website, on the Action! tab.)

Tick alert

Yesterday we were playing all kinds of games across the big park. When my son was brushing his teeth in the evening I saw what I thought was a big pimple on his back, very unusual for a seven year old. When I looked at it closer I found a tick sitting there right in the middle of his back but luckily it didn't have its head buried properly quite yet and came off very easily.

Please be aware that ticks apparently don't only sit in the high grass or the bushy path edges, it looks like they can also be here on our weekly mown park; my guess is that my son picked it up somewhere close to the river, as we were playing football down there and the grass is of differing heights near the bank. I don't think there are many, this was the first time in the seven years that we have been living here, but I will definitely make sure to check a bit more diligently in future that we didn't bring any creatures into the house after playing out there! And I will invest in some special tweezers for safe tick removal!

Further information:
Borreliosis and Associated Diseases Awareness UK: Correct Tick Removal
NHS: Insect bites and stings - treatment
Lyme Disease Action: How do I remove a tick?

You can also collect the tick alive and send it to the Tick Recording Scheme.

Date change for Picnic & Play, now on 14 July

I had to change the date for the Picnic & Play as it was clashing with the Hat Fair (which I didn't realise when I originally chose the date). So the new date will be a week later, on Sunday 14 July, still noon to 2pm.

New crossing call for Worthy Road in Abbotts Barton

Would you like a new crossing for Worthy Road in Abbotts Barton? It might be worth contacting the St. Bartholomew ward councillors to give this request more weight!

See today's article in Hampshire Chronicle: New crossing call for Winchester main road

How about an informal Picnic & Play in the park?

Since there is no knowing the weather I've decided to pick a date and follow up on an idea several of  the parents had: to organise another picnic and play in the Abbotts Barton park! I was thinking to do this around lunch time again, so that everybody could bring their own picnic and a blanket to sit on and maybe some outdoor toys that the children could use to play with. I could bring along these items to play with:

• A big inflatable gym ball (that's just been living in our shed for the last seven years, poor thing!)
• A football
• An egg and spoon race set

Picnic time would be noon to 2pm (or longer if the weather is nice), Sunday 7 July 14 July. It would be nice if you could leave a message in the comments if you plan to come along!

Since there is no setup required nobody needs to come early but we should all try our best and remove any rubbish afterwards.

Of course if it's rainy or wet in any way we'll have to cancel but let's hope for the best!

Connect with us: now also on Facebook!

Please feel free to update yourself via our new Abbotts Barton Community Group Facebook page! Of course there is also our Twitter account that can be used if you prefer that: @AbbottsBartonCG.

If you want to make absolutely sure not miss any of our posts, then subscribe to our email update service. This way each new post will be delivered as email straight to your inbox! (This service can be stopped by you at any time and we are not giving out your email address to anybody.)

Councillor's Surgery visit

Today, Jane, Lynne and I went to the St. Bartholomew Councillor's Surgery (first Thursday of every month, 7:30-8:30pm at Hyde Parish Hall) to find out how things are progressing in Abbotts Barton. Here are a few short notes from our conversation with Jim Maynard and Dominic Hiscock:

Parking restrictions

The agreed restrictions (see Parking page) are due to become active very soon, possibly even already sometime in July. However, first street signs will have to go up and line markings on the roads will have to be done. Also a four week notice will have to be given for people to get their parking licenses.

Council house development

Please see the update on the Save The Parks site.

Football Club

The Football Club wants to update its facilities to allow for better running of the place and to attract more people. This could mean that there might be space for our community to be used (meeting room and possibly other purposes). Winchester City Council is working with the Club at the moment to make plans. Is there  anything you want? If you have any ideas please forward them to your councillors and we would be interested to hear them as well (please use the comments section below).

A crossing for Worthy Road

The Abbotts Walk development had to pay some money under section 106 towards highway funding. The idea is to use it for a proper crossing on Worthy Road near the Stoke Road bus stop.

20mph speed limit

The 20mph speed limit is going to be rolled out all over Winchester. The first areas to get this implemented are Stanmore and Highcliffe, then there will be most likely a year before this is rolled out to other areas of Winchester.

A park used well!

Today we came together in the park for a much nicer event than last time (the Save The Parks press photo shoot): we had our Big Lunch and it was a very nice afternoon, especially when the sun decided to warm us up again after a little bit of a cold spell at the beginning.

People were very generous and brought along delicious food to share and drinks of all kinds.

While the grown-ups chatted, the children had a great time playing with the outdoor toys brought along by Jane; at some point they even organised an obstacle course and asked the grown-ups to go along the course - and I was told it was a good one! I didn't get to see much of my son for most of the duration of the Big Lunch, he was playing happily with the neighbourhood children or munching away on some of the goodies on the tables. We should really do a small version of this every so often on nice weekend Sundays to get the children to play more outside!

 

Thank you to everybody who joined us today and of course a very big thank you to Jane and helpers who organised the whole event!