Get Active Now are holding an open meeting on Tuesday 19th February in the Council Chamber at Penns Place, Petersfield.

This is to discuss the ‘Future of sport and physical activity in East Hampshire’ and our views are sought on what we would like to see in the area.

Places are limited so please book by visiting http://inspireagenerationeasthants.eventbrite.com

Please click here to see the main leaflet which you can forward onto clubs and other groups who might be interested: inspire workshop ehdc 0113

Thank goodness the snow has gone!

After a heavy 6 inches out of the blue, Hampshire County Council and associated agencies (EHDC, HPC etc) did a first class job of clearing the priority one and Priority two routes (see earlier posts). Indeed they managed to get tractors and JCB’s into pretty much all of the roads on Downs and get them passable pretty quickly.

I heard from a few residents who needed to get out for Hospital appointments and other urgent events and was able to help a bit (That was me on the road legal quad bike delivering some supplies, checking grit bins, and in the yellow Land Rover helping with transport to a few residents).

If possible I would appreciate your views on what can be done to make it easier to manage next winter. Some of the roads in the estate, especially Wasdale, Eskdale and Francis Road amongst many others were (predictably) badly affected as they are very steep. There was a lot of community spirit with groups of people clearing snow together, but would additional grit bins in your area help? please can you let me know where one would be useful and I will speak to HCC. So far I have asked for one at the bottom end of Wasdale Close.

Positive feedback also is appreciated so this can be passed onto HCC, it will make the point that the level of coverage and support has been appreciated and welcome, and they should plan it again for next winter if the need arrises.

In the meantime, the award for the best use of the snow goes to a house in north Road for their snow igloo. I work in Construction for my day job, and this one household built more in the snow than all of my projects achieved in the last week!

Friday saw a good 4 to 6 inches of snow in Downs Ward, and this looks like it will be around for the next few days and topped up on Sunday as light snow is currently forecast.

Ploughing:

The Priority One routes (See last post) are all pretty good and passable.
The Priority Two routes have not yet been ploughed, nor gritted. I am awaiting a response from HCC on when they will be able to get to these. (This is the route in from part of South Road onto North road and then down Francis Road.

Grit Bins:

I have checked most of the grit bins this morning and reported empty bins on Wasdale Close, Cherville Close, Holdenhurst Close, Juniper road, First Avenue. If I have missed one then you can either let me know, or report it to Hampshire County Council on the link here: http://maps.hants.gov.uk/roadproblems/MapLocate.aspx?calltype=EMPT&class=SALT&

No bin? It is going to be difficult to do much about that now, but if your road does not have a grit bin, and would benefit from one, then we can ask HCC to assess the road for one. The criteria they need to satisfy are below. If you feel your road could have benefited from one, and it meets the criteria below, then please let me know and I will follow this up. I am asking HCC for one at the bottom of Wasdale Close, and we managed to get one installed at Juniper road last week.

The bin must not obstruct sight lines
Bins are normally be placed on highway land
There must be sufficient space for the bin and for the bin to be refilled
The bins will be placed in areas of significant pedestrian and traffic use
The bins will be placed in places near to where there is a significant slope.

EHDC Services:

Please visit http://www.easthampshire.org to get a listing of services that have been affected by the weather.

Bin collections

There are no bin collections in East Hampshire on Fridays, with crews concentrating on rounds in Winchester. In the event of the severe icy conditions or significant snow fall lasting into next week, waste collections may have to be suspended. Collections will resume once conditions improve. Should your bin/sack/box not be collected on your normal collection day please leave it out at your normal collection point. We will return to empty it as soon as possible. Based on current weather forecasts this should be by the end of next week.

To assist collection crews, please could we ask that you make sure that the bin/sack is not frozen to the ground and that the bin lid is free to open. If the period of bad weather extends into next week, please check the http://www.easthampshire.org website for further information, or call Customer Services on 0300 300 0013.

In the meantime I bring you news from the North of England. The BBC have reported that Telford’s artificial ski slope has been closed due to the snow… I suspect they will get some stick for that.

Guy.

In September, October and November 2012 we had a tough time with traffic and delays in Horndean while SGN replaced the gas pipes under the road. These have been covered on this blog twice, but the key issues were the unnecessarily long time they took with only one work area being progressed at a time of the 4 that were closed off, and minimal weekend work which only commenced after pressure from us.

We were assured by Hampshire County Council that the future roadworks would be planned in better. There would be advance notification. We would know how long they would take. Good. None of us likes roadworks, but if they are well-managed, being worked on efficiently, and minimal impact to road users then we are very tolerant to this.

Last week saw another period of roadworks in Horndean, albeit fortunately shorter, but we received no advance warning, were not told how long they would take, and again they were 4 way alternate traffic lights. As a minimum, make Blendworth lane a left turn only road during these works so that the lights are 3 way. Where possible lay road plates over the weekend so that they can be ‘opened up’ when they are not worked on. Finally, the road was reinstated on Saturday morning, and it took until Sunday to remove the lights. On Saturday, the queueing traffic from the centre of Horndean ran back to the A3M Junction 1 off slip. This simply is not acceptable.

We will have more roadworks as the Gales site requires BT, Sewer, Storm, Power, Gas, Cable TV and then a substantial overhaul of the road. I think we can accept that if they are planned in efficiently, well-managed and we know the duration. this message has gone very clearly to HCC and I hope future works are less disruptive.