The Roman Landings BC55.
This cartoon appeared in the now defunct ‘The Morning Leader’ newspaper circa 1910, some 100 years ago. The caption reads “The currently accepted story of this event mentions considerable opposition on the part of the British, but it is more likely the Municipal Dignatories gave the Roman invaders an even more painful reception”
How we have we changed in the last two millenia… If you have a view on this, oh, please DO let me know…
The 2011 Census results have been issued and below are some of the key statistics about The Parish Of Horndean. All percentage increases are since the 2001 census so cover a 10 year period. (The Parish of Horndean includes Horndean, Blendworth, Catherington, Lovedean and Hazleton)
Population. We have a population of 12,942 people in 5,240 households which is growth of 2.4%. There are 2.46 people per house on average. 19.6% of the population are over 65 which is an increase from 15%. The population growth is linked to housing needs which help to determine the type of housing needed. For Horndean it is affordable housing for first time buyers and due to the ageing population more housing that is suitable for single elderly people or care home facilities. The number of people living in a house has dropped which means the same population requires more homes. There are currently 4 care homes with places for 100 elderly people.
House Numbers. There are 5,240 houses compared to 5032 ten years ago. This is an increase of 208 in the last decade, or 21 per year. This is quite a bit less than I had thought, and may surprise you too. The next 10 years will almost certainly require more as the average age continues to rise, families have 2.4 children and more homes are occupied by single people.
Education. The number of people aged 16+ with the highest number of qualifications has increased from 21% to 30%. This is a factor in our improved average income.
Health. 13.5% of people feel their day-to-day activities are limited by their health or a disability. 84.6% feel in good or very good health and 4% in bad or very bad health. The Blendworth Lane surgery has 4528 registered patients, are currently accepting new patients, and it is hoped they will move into the new development and be able to offer additional health services to the community.
Employment. 6514 people are employed or in full-time education. Registered unemployed increased from 149 to 216. Despite the increase we are still well below the national average with the 2011 figure affected by the recession.
Mobility. Of the 5240 households 442 have no car or van (8.4%) 1765 (34.7%) have one car or van and 2984 (56.9%) have more than one. This is good evidence to support efforts to push for better bus services, something we all know we need.
House Prices. The average East Hampshire house price is £351,407. Catherington & Lovedean is £316,664 and Hazleton & Blendworth is £276,430.
Average Income. Average East Hampshire is £43,598. Catherington & Lovedean is £51,157 and Hazleton & Blendworth is £37,815.
Need for affordable housing. There are 130 households in need of affordable housing at the moment. 66 require a 1 bed property (incl Sheltered Housing) 50 require a 2 bed, 13 require a 3 bed and 1 a 4 bed home. 84% of homes are owner occupied. 7.6% are social housing and 7.2% private rented.
I hope you found that interesting! Much of it forms the basis for forecasting budget growth, service provision and hopusing needs at EHDC.
It was announced on the 21st March that BT have signed a £13.8m contract with Hampshire County Council to improve broadband in Hampshire. They claim that 90% of properties will be able to access ‘Super Fast Broadband’ by the end of 2015, but this will be rolled out based on public interest and people signing the campaign.
Currently many homes are able to access 8Mbps and 24 Mbps but Superfast will deliver speeds of up to 80Mbps when it comes.
To see what internet speed you have, and to support the campaign please click on this link and enter your postcode with no space in the middle: https://www3.hants.gov.uk/broadband-signup
It will let you know what services are available, if Super Fast Broadband is planned, and if not currently planned in will let you register your support for it. This will help bring it to all of us sooner. It is particularly important that this message gets out to households a bit off the beaten track as if they are in the last 10% they will not get the service.
It does not commit you to, nor sign you up to a new service.
Horndean Roadworks Update…
There was a very productive meeting this morning with Hampshire County Council with Cllr Denston (District Councillor Hazleton Lovedean Ward) and Cllr Marge Harvey (Rowlands Castle) who is in touch with Hampshire County Council on a number of highways issues. Key outcomes below:
Easter Weekend. Gales and the roadworks contractor have taken on board requests to clear the road for Easter and worked hard in the last few weeks and today were able to confirm that the roadworks will be taken down for the 4 day Easter Bank Holiday Weekend. All going well they will be taken down on Thursday PM and we will have 4 days of free access. They will be back on Tuesday next week though.
4 Way Lights. The problem with the 4 way lights is that every time they change, the roadworks need to remain red on all lanes for about 30 seconds while the traffic clears. This means that in one cycle the roadworks remain red for 2 minutes, and this is one of the main factors in building delays. Hampshire County Council and the roadworks contractor agree they may be able to set up the roadworks with 3 way lights which will cut this down and reduce the queues a bit. A serious effort to plan this in is being made.
Manual Operation of the lights. It is a legal requirement that the lights are manually operated at times. This allows the operators to manually override the cycle of changes to clear traffic that is excessively building up. HCC are going to enforce this and ensure it is carried out. This too should reduce queues.
Mud On The Road. Linden apologise for the state of mud on the road and have assured that it will not re-occur, and that the frequency of road sweeping will increase to keep the roads and footway clear.
Potholes. Linden will repair some of the potholes today / tomorrow and HCC will also send a crew out on Friday to carry out temporary repairs to the road.
Timescales. There are another 3 weeks work with 3 (hopefully not 4) way lights. These will run up to the 22nd April while the kerb line on the South side of the roundabout is replaced, then there will be 2 way lights until the 6th May at which time the temporary lights will go. After the kerb line has been placed, the carriageway will be completely resurfaced with a new tarmac. This will need to be carried out at night, and will be disruptive for the residents and result in a diversion. Neighbours will be informed 2 weeks in advance as will the Parish and District Council and we will keep everyone informed. Unfortunately this is unavoidable, but will only last a few evenings.
In 6 weeks time the final road layout will be complete. Linden Homes will be responsible for maintaining it and handing over a defect free carriageway a year later to Hampshire County Council. This will include repairing any damage to the road during the rest of their works.
Sincere thanks to Rachael Walsh and Mark Westwood from Hampshire County Council for meeting today and following up on the issues which have been put to them in the last weeks. Keep an eye here for any updates.
London road has historically flooded where it passes under the A3M at Junction 1 and 2 years ago Hampshire county Council organised the installation of a large soakaway and beanie block kerbing to let water quickly drain away. This has made a difference, but the road still floods and most of this appears to be water running off from the fields opposite and onto the road.
Hampshire County Council have been asked to look into this and see if a ditch can be dug on the private land to prevent this and stop the drains from silting up.
Updates will be posted here.
Since the blog was started in October 2012, the number of visits has been building up and during December, January and February reached an astonishing 400 to 475 a month. March looks like it will break 500. Thank you for coming back regularly, I hope you find the content of interest and use, and if you have any ideas on what would be a useful blog entry or handy link for the toolbars on the right then please let me know.
Horndean has been suffering from on and off roadworks since September last year which are set to run on until May this year. These have been the subject of previous blog entries where they have been poorly managed, and much effort has been put into pressuring Hampshire County Council over this, but so far to little avail.
Neither Parish nor District Council have control over the roadworks. This is Hampshire County Council who receive 72% of our Council tax, and are currently represented by an ineffective and invisible County Councillor. It is so important that in these coming elections we elect a candidate who will take up issues like this on our behalf.
The 5 Horndean the District Councillors as active members in the community are often the first port of call for any issue, regardless of which authority it is the responsibility of. Indeed most residents are not interested if it is another authorities problem because we are also here to liaise with the other Councils, and why not. That would be joined up thinking, but it seems that not every organisation is willing to cooperate and help with this at times.
Gas Pipe Works.
The gas pipe works late last year were the first major issue for Horndean. First off, I am certain that everyone would accept that the replacement of a collapsed gas pipe has to be carried out, and that it would cause some disruption, but would expect this to be minimised. SGN originally applied for a 12 week permit to close the road with 4 way lights for most of this period. Hampshire County Councils engineers rightly responded that this was too long, and SGN would need to apply for a shorter permit. A 6 week closure was then agreed.
The fundamental problem with working to this shorter closure was that SGN only put one roadworks gang on the job with one digger and worked (with little exception) during the working week only, and no effort was made to speed up the works. Unsurprisingly, they over ran and took just over 10 weeks. there was no point then in agreeing a shorter permit as no effort was made to work within it.
We said can you put more than one gang on the job. This would double the speed and halve the time. They said no as there was too little working space, and of course, safety reasons. (You may recall vast areas coned off at the same time and should form your own view).
We said can you work weekends to minimise the delay (10 weekends = 20 days = 3 weeks shorter) they said no, there was not enough resource to prioritise this with the only gangs willing to work weekends prioritised for emergency works. (The workforce carrying out the works advised us that SGN had an overtime ban to save money, and would otherwise be happy to work).
We asked if traffic from Blendworth lane could be a temporary left turn only to cut the lights from 4 way to 3 way and thus cutting out 1 phase and 75% of the period when all lights were red while traffic cleared the road. They said no, because of the fire station. Timing the amount of time the lights on Blendworth Lane went green it was only 10% of the time. Clearly this response is nonsense as the fire engine would be 90% likely to have to pass red lights to get out anyway.
We asked if the roadworks could be taken down for some weekends if areas could be reinstated in time to give some breaks at least. This happened once.
I work in Construction for my day job and these roadworks were carried out in the cheapest most convenient manner for SGN possible with no regard for our community, nor support from Hampshire County Council in minimising impact. Emails to the current County Councillor and formal requests from East Hampshire District Council Community Forum on this still remain unanswered.
At the end of the roadworks, and following enormous pressure on Hampshire County Council to get these completed in time for the remembrance day parade, Hampshire County Council assured us that:
1 – They would give us 2 weeks notice before any further roadworks so we could inform residents.
2 – They would consider making Blendworth lane a Left turn only.
3 – They would inform us 2 weeks before night works began.
4 – They would work with the contractor to ensure that 4 way lights would be minimised on the scheme.
5 – They would meet with us to discuss the works and help to inform the community at large.
Damaged Electricity Cable.
The first week back after Christmas the roadworks again popped up with no warning and 4 way lights were in place for 2 weeks to replace a power cable which was damaged during the gas works. We were told that ‘it was too short notice to warn us’ but the works were able to be booked in by a contractor, and agreed through County Council.
Gales Works.
2 weeks ago we again saw the introduction of 4 way lights in the village. The promises from Hampshire County Council to speak to us before hand and organise a meeting turned out to be worthless as no such notification took place. We were also assured we would be warned of the night works prior to these starting and again, this did not happen. Angry residents on Tuesday night caused sufficient disruption to the contractor to result in the night works being suspended early, and I have every sympathy for the residents as I have little doubt they were treated with little consideration by Hampshire County Council too.
This is so frustrating and usually the councillors and staff of partner Councils work together to support each other, stick up for each other (were appropriate) and help provide a consistent and positive message to the community. It is very unusual for a Councilor to write text like this which thoroughly condemns the performance of another organisation.
The rejuvenation of the Gales Site into a new village centre is so important to our community, and all of us see this as a very positive step. We know the road is to be realigned and re-surfaced and expect there to be some disruption, and can tolerate this if it is carried out considerately. The desperately slow gas pipe works caused unnecessary frustration to us all, and now that Linden Homes have to carry out their works, patience and tolerance is wearing thin.
In the last few days we have been able to get the following out of Hampshire County, who apologise for not making contact prior to the start of the works as had been promised.
1 – There will be a meeting on site on Wednesday 27th to discuss the issues. If you have any messages for me to pass on then please email me on guy.shepherd@easthants.gov.uk and I will be pleased to do so.
2 – We have a 4 day Easter bank holiday weekend coming up. We have asked if the roadworks can reach a natural conclusion and be removed over the weekend to give 4 days respite and avoid unnecessary delays.
3 – The 4 way lights are currently planned to run to the 22nd April, or a further 4 weeks at which point they will return to 2 way lights until the scheme is completed on the 6th May.
4 – The number of potholes and debris on the road has been raised several times and the current road condition is appaling. These will be filled in on Sunday 24th during the night. If you have suffered damage then the link to register a claim is here: http://www3.hants.gov.uk/roads/potholes/potholes-vehicle-damage/highway-incident-claims.htm
I will post an update following the meeting on Wednesday, and if you have any message for me to pass on to the Highways Engineers please let me know on guy.shepherd@easthants.gov.uk
