Thoughts about the City Council consultation in Abbotts Barton

As the community group are working on the community plan, we were pleased by the opportunity to attend the consultation event with our own boards. We talked to many residents and will try to add everything we heard to our plan to give feedback to the City Council about what the community wants. The main topics raised with me on the day were ‘a safer crossing for Worthy Road is needed’, and ‘the houses to be built at Hillier Road being unsuitable for the area and boxing in the people living at Simonds Court’. We were also complimented on what we do as a community group and on our web presence which people seem to really like.

Of course we also wanted to take a look ourselves at what the Council and the Scouts presented. I hadn’t been aware that there would also be people from the football club with a plan of their own about what they want to do with the club buildings.

At the consultation some people seemed to have trouble to find somebody from the Council to talk to, and I agree officers at times weren’t easy to spot as not all of them seemed to have lanyards with identification tags, so residents came over to me to make their points, with them apparently thinking I was Council officer (despite a home-made name tag). Of course we are also interested in what people think about housing developments, so after pointing out that I was from the community group I happily listened to what they had to say.

I had been there for two hours first thing, speaking with residents about various items but didn’t really have a chance to look at everything presented in detail then as the marquee was quite full. Apparently there were about 150 people visiting in total. When I had to leave, Brenda and Keith helped out (thank you!) representing the group, and later our chair Lynne took over.

Landscape Options board 1

Landscape Options board 2

When I joined Lynne later in the day to tidy up, we agreed we were a bit confused by one of the boards presented by the council re landscape improvements. Once again sticky dots were used to collect feedback on what people would like to happen (a practice that was used at the consultation event in 2012 and which we heavily criticised at the time as there was nobody watching at that event how many dots residents actually used), and while there was more control this time on how many dots people were allowed to use, the options presented were grouped and if you opted for one of those things in a group your dot then was also indicating support for all of the other things in there which is not necessarily what was meant. From talking with people I have learnt that many are happy with our green areas as they are and don’t really want much to be done to them.

From what I’ve heard, people are in general not very keen on any houses being built in the free spaces in Abbotts Barton. A sentiment that I share because I love that there is so much green space, but I do recognise the need for more council houses as there are so many people on the waiting list. A lot of residents seem to agree that the main area to keep free of houses is the top of the main park along Chaundler Road/Charles Close - which we were told in a briefing in September 2014 would stay free (‘council listening to residents’), but some residents really don’t want any new houses at all on any of the green areas. Residents also fear that once houses are built in those areas marked for development, more will be added in places that are currently not marked for houses.

The feedback to our community plan as seen so far is interesting but we are hoping to get many more responses, that’s why we have put together an online version of our questionnaire.

Please let us have your thoughts, also about the housing and the consultation! It only takes five minutes!

Thank you,
Sylke - Secretary Abbotts Barton Community Group

Abbotts Barton Community Plan and the consultation event

Today we had the Abbotts Barton consultation event organised by Winchester City Council to discuss the plans for houses that the council want to build at Hillier Way.

The marquee

Apart from Winchester City Council officers, there were also members from the 6th Winchester Scout Group, people from the Abbotts Barton football club, and of course, members of the Community Group.

We presented our draft Community plan and asked people to give us feedback via a questionnaire. This opportunity was taken up by many right there and then and we are hoping that more questionnaires will be returned to us. It will take us a while to go through all the answers and compile them into usable data but we will let you know of course when we are done with that and will share our findings.

Lynne in conversation

It was very nice to meet members of the Abbotts Barton community and to see how many are taking an interest in what is going to happen to the neighbourhood.

If you should have missed the event and would still like to give us, the Community Group, feedback, please use the link on our Community Plan page to fill out the online version of our questionnaire. It should only take you five minutes. On that page you will also find a link to the version of the draft plan for you to review.

The 6th Winchester Scouts Group, who were there to to present their plans for a Scout hut in Abbotts Barton, undertook an opinion survey and presented their results:

A Scout board showing
support for a Scout hut
in Abbotts Barton

Some of the local Scout group leaders

If you would like to find more information about the information displayed by Winchester City Council at the consultation, please see their website: New Council Housing - Abbotts Barton.

News Roundup - July 2015

It's high time for a News Roundup, especially with the consultation event for Abbotts Barton coming up:

On Tuesday 14 July 2015 Winchester City Council will hold an event about new affordable homes and improving facilities in Abbotts Barton. Most, if not all, residents of Abbotts Barton should have received the leaflet at the right.

Members of the Community Group will be present at this event to get feedback on the Community Plan that we are working on. Requirements and ideas change over time and we need to update what has been put together so far; we will ask attendants to fill out a questionnaire to help us do that. Please come along and say hello!

The 6th Winchester Scout Group will also be present to talk about the Scout Hut they would like to build in Abbotts Barton.

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Has anybody tried our self led photo trail? If so, bring your results along to the next Picnic In The Park on 2 August. There will be more picnics this year on 6 September and on 4 October!

Found at our Big Lunch - any owners missing their items? A glass jug or a turquoise plastic plate? They are in my cupboards now, until somebody claims them. The Frisbee will become part of the picnic toy collection.

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Other news & events

Phone scams are getting more wide spread. Make sure not to fall for these and read up on how to recognise them: Hang Up On Fraud (PDF)!

Have you seen: Community Games organised by Winchester SALT & Mosaic Design Competition

SAVE Britain's Heritage is supporting the campaign to stop the current Silver Hill scheme and to bring about a development that better reflects the charm and character of Winchester. They have set up an online petition through 38 Degrees to ask the Secretary of State, Greg Clark MP, to call in the Silver Hill applications and to initiate a full investigation into the proposals.

Make sure your favourite local project receives a grant, vote via Community First Winchester.

Winchester City Council Press Release: Design competition proposed for Station Approach

Hampshire County Council is working on its cycling strategy, you can read the draft document and give feedback.

Winchester City Council is consulting on the Council tax reduction for 2016/17.

You might have noticed the work being done to the river at the recreation grounds, it's finished now according to the Daily Echo: Work to make Hampshire river 'wildlife-friendly' completed

An interesting proposal for student flats to be built: A £10m flat scheme could kickstart regeneration around Winchester Railway Station, a meeting heard

There seems to be a delay at the Barton Farm building site: Work on the 2,000 home Barton Farm development north of Winchester has been hit by delays

Many more news items have been posted via Twitter, Facebook and Google since the last News Roundup in May. The Twitter feed is part of our website to make things easier if you shouldn't have an account on any of the social media sites mentioned.

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Please don't hesitate to share this email with anybody you think might be interested!

All the best,
Sylke
Secretary of Abbotts Barton Community Group

Councillor's Surgery - July 2015

This month Sylke went to the local Wednesday surgery to speak to Dominic Hiscock.

Recently a resident had brought to the attention of us and the councillors that there are broken bricks at the steps to the garages at the end of Chaundler Road. This has been followed up on and a surveyor has been looking at this for the City Council. It was decided that something needs to be done about this.

I learned that our Neighbourhood Warden (Andrew Murphy) has been saying the mowing around the picnic benches needs to improve, a solution might be to get a surface thing underneath. I believe the maintenance team has been doing a better job in the meantime. The neighbourhood warden is an employee of the council who works for Neighbourhood Services, who we have not yet met but of course want to meet.

There will be no Wednesday surgery on 1 August as Dominic will be on holidays. The Thursday surgery on 2 August is supposed to go ahead but as it's in the middle of the summer holidays, I think it might be wise double-checking with Jim Maynard beforehand if you want to go.

Finally, the rugby club has a new person to deal with lettings, so people can rent their rooms (and bar) again!

Please see our events list for future councillor's surgery locations, dates and times!