February Update

Hi everyone

Welcome to the February newsletter. There wasn’t a January one as there wasn’t much to report and I managed to completely forget to go to the councillors’ surgery. If anyone fancies helping with this do get in touch. The surgeries are 11am-12pm on the first Wednesday of the month at Simonds Court at the top of Hillier Way, or 7:30pm on the first Thursday of the month at Hyde parish hall.

The most exciting piece of news is that we finally got permission from the council for a community orchard. The planting was on Sunday 7th so do pop down and see what we’ve planted. The site is on the Chaundler Road park at the far end from the playground round the corner, at the bottom of Grosvenor Drive.

It looks like Hampshire Wildlife Trust will be running another pond dipping event in Abbotts Barton on 28 Feb at 10am. The last one was great. The details are being firmed up but keep that date clear if you like the idea. Posters will go up on the noticeboards and I’ll confirm on the Facebook Forum so if you’re a Facebook user keep an eye on that.

The Facebook Forum is proving really popular and is a much more reliable way of keeping updated about local news than the ordinary Facebook page. If you’re a Facebook user or want to try it out do search for ‘Abbotts Barton Community Forum’ and ask to join. The advantages are that you see everything that is posted and ‘likes’ or comments are only seen by members of the group and not all your friends – who perhaps may not find our local news quite so thrilling. With the ordinary Facebook Page the posts only appear to about 30 of the 150 people who have ‘liked’ in the hope that we will pay Facebook to put the message in everyone else’s feed ☹. Recent posts on the forum by local residents include: news about the new council houses; free matches at the football club; a planning application for a new student house; free curtains, carpet, sofa and kids’ toys; recommendations for a carpenter/decorator; babysitting offers and lost/found items.

Dates for your diary: we are planning to run three picnic in the park events this year 1-3pm on 12 June, 3 July and 4 September. The 12 June will be the big annual Big Lunch, the July one a straightforward picnic and the September one is just before schools/pre-schools go back so is a good one for kids starting or returning to school to meet friends. They are intended for all ages though, bringing a kid is not compulsory. If anyone has ideas for other events they’d like to see run or would be happy to run do get in touch. We ran picnics from May-Oct last year but would need other people to host them to manage that this year. All you need to do is commit to being there, set up and clear away the flag/toys and say hi to people when they arrive. Do get in touch if you could do that on the first Sunday of May, August or October.

Jane and I made it to this month’s local councillors’ surgery yesterday. We asked that the ruts on Dyson Drive be looked at as that had come up on the Facebook forum and a number of people have mentioned it to us. We also asked that the council consider changing the path on the proposed development on Hillier way so that it ran from the bottom of Hillier way across the grass to the bottom of the Barn Stores (where people do cut across the grass) rather than the opposite diagonal as currently proposed (where people never walk anyway).

There is currently a consultation by the city council about flood measures in North Winchester.

The football club have a match on 20th Feb at 3pm. Tickets £8 for adults, children free. We have been given some free tickets so if you want to organise a local group going then do get in touch.

Lucy has been in consultation with the Abbotts Barton nursing home about cars coming out of the nursing home too quickly, without checking for pedestrians or cyclists on the shared-use pavement. The nursing home have said that they will put up more signs and consider a ‘sleeping policeman’ to slow down cars. Thanks Lucy.

Jane attended the Community First AGM on 26 January. This was an opportunity to meet with other local voluntary organisations in the Winchester area and hear about Community First’s new volunteer service and their training programme.

That’s about it, have a good month and maybe see you at the pond dipping.

Lynne (chair) and Jane (treasurer)

P.S. If you want these updates in your inbox then please use the contacts box at the top of this page, email info@abbottsbarton.org.uk