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Aquind have held their first series of consultation on their proposed Interconnector and they advise that a total of 239 people visited and gave their views which were overall very supportive of the project.

Of the 12,942 residents of Horndean (2011 census) the attendance was not very large, especially as the 239 is across all three venues for the project from the coast to Lovedean.

For those who could not make the consultation click HERE to view the Aquind consultation boards that were presented.

Below are some of the extracts that are relevant to our community and I have also added in a poll for the same questions Aquind asked that affect us locally to see if we can get the same results.

The visitors were also invited to leave feedback on the presentation and one Lovdean resident is quoted below:

Why Lovedean?

Lovedean substation in Hampshire was identified as the optimal connection location for AQUIND Interconnector following an assessment by National Grid who have an obligation to develop and maintain an efficient, coordinated and economical electricity transmission network. The assessment considers factors such as National Grid’s knowledge of the existing network (including agreed future connections), agreed cost information, environmental considerations and other constraints associated with the project, alongside input from AQUIND on the details of the assets to be connected.
The converter station needs to be located as close as possible to the substation, in order to minimise the length of AC cable used as part of the interconnector. This is because AC cables take up a wider corridor of land when compared to DC cables. Therefore, in order to reduce impact on land, it is favourable to maximise the use of DC cables, which take up a considerably narrower corridor compared to AC cables. AC cables also have higher transmission losses and pose other technical challenges, meaning that a longer AC cable would partly offset and reduce the benefits of the interconnector.

The consultation boards on the converter station show a possible design. Remember, this is up to 22m tall and covering 6 to 9 Hectares of land.

Once the poll has run for a while I will update it with the results.

The next litter pick will be on the 25th March 2018 starting again at Morrisons Car Park at 9:30am. Sally and the team hope to see regular and new volunteers. All are welcome and equipment is provided!

There have been a number of theft from vehicles reported to Police over the last 48 hrs across the Butser Sector. Theft from vehicles is now a district priority and as such your local neighbourhood policing team will remain committed to supporting victims of crime and targeting offenders.

Locations of Recent Theft from Vehicles:

• Oak Leaf Way,
• Juniper Road,
• Holdenhurst Close – Horndean,
• Valley Park Drive,
• Homefield Way – Clanfield

Please read our advice below:

• Park your vehicle in a secure area (in a garage or behind locked gates, if possible).
• If you can’t, park in a well-lit street in easy view of your own or neighbours’ houses.
• Where possible, remove valuable items from the vehicle overnight and store them in a secure place.
• Do not leave tools or equipment on view inside the vehicle.
• Consider fitting an appropriate alarm system, protecting the cabin and load areas.
• Apply a security marking product to power tools and equipment. Alternatively, etch or emboss identifiable marks to these items.
• Consider installing secure storage containers or lockers in the van to store tools in.
• Ensure that the van doors are securely lockable and consider having suitable deadlocks installed.
• Make sure to physically check that the van doors and windows are locked if you have used the remote to lock the vehicle, even if the feedback indicates the van as locked.
• When visiting businesses, try to park close to the entrance and preferably in the view of CCTV
• Log your property for free at www.immobilise.com

Please ensure you are vigilant at all times, calling police to report any suspicious activity, not just around your own property but anything suspicious in your residential area and community. In an emergency use 999 or 101 for non-emergency. It is not too late to report any suspicious activity to police.

During the recent bad weather HCC and other organisations carried out extensive works keeping roads open despite some difficult weather conditions.

The email below is an update email from Stuart Jarvis, Director of Economy, Transport and Environment at Hampshire County Council and gives a good close out on the works carried out, resources used and some of the damage we will see due to potholes etc. It was a very good update and has been posted here with Stuarts permission.

As a country we are not generally well equipped for snow – it happens so infrequently that it is not worth the cost to invest in dealing with it to the same level of ability of other countries for whom it is routine. The email below gives a good idea of the works carried out to keep our roads as open and passable as possible.

Dear MPs, Members and Partners

A final note from me on the winter weather event we have just been through in respect of Hampshire Highways Teams.  I’m glad to see that the thaw has arrived; we’ve certainly been through a tough few days that have fully stretched resources.  I’m pleased to say that we managed to keep main routes on Hampshire’s local network open and passable with care for most of the time during the severe weather; though diverting traffic following the closure of the A34 did cause us some additional problems on the diversion routes.  The severe cold, strong winds and rapid accumulation and drifting of snow, once it started falling on Thursday afternoon caused challenges everywhere, and particularly on our higher routes, as well as causing problems for Highways England on the strategic road network especially the A31 across the Forest, and on rail services in south western Hampshire.

Our greatest challenge came from the highest points of the road network, particularly in the North and West of the county and on the A272 just outside Winchester.  Here, despite continual work, the snow drifting off fields onto the road caused us particular problems at Cheesefoot Head, which, in the end needed one JCB, a gritter and two tractors with snow ploughs  to shift the snow and ice to make the road passable again.

We had started to ramp on winter operations from the previous Saturday, making sure all routes (P1, P2 and community routes) were treated more than once with salt to tackle ice and prepare for snow. From 6am on Thursday, we moved to continuous round the clock gritting, deployed contracted farmers with HCC snow ploughs, mobilised our framework contractors and supplied our district colleagues with salt to support their efforts to keep shopping areas, main footways and car parks clear.  We issued lots of advice to residents to be prepared and avoid all but essential travel. As predicted, the snow started to fall in earnest on Thursday afternoon, and we managed to keep the majority of the main network clear in spite of traffic build up, minor accidents and abandoned cars.  As always, I was struck by the commitment of our staff, partners, contractors and volunteers, including 4×4 drivers, to keeping the roads open and help stranded road users, during difficult circumstances.  This included lots of work on Saturday and Sunday to tackle outstanding problems and try to restore normal conditions.  Even this morning there were some residual problems of drifted snow remaining on a few of the smaller highest routes in the County.

Travel conditions have largely returned to normal now, but there will be a long tail to the snow, with recovery across our whole road network likely to take many months. The damage inflicted by the snow and ice across the county, on already fragile roads, will be significant.  We have a massive challenge on our hands.  The first phase is to ensure safety on the network and tackle safety defects.  Given the scale of the damage we’ll need to make extensive use of temporary repairs and will be sending out find and fix gangs and programmed repair teams to do this essential emergency work.  With our revenue budget already under pressure, it is likely to be around 12 months before we can bring back the whole network to the state it was before, and we will need to review and reprioritise our 2018/19 maintenance programme in order to do this.  We are, therefore, calling on the Government to make additional funding available to help authorities who have been badly hit to restore their networks as quickly as possible, for example by an early decision to increase funding available through the government’s ‘Pothole Fund’.  Any help or support that MPs are able to give for this would be particularly welcome, as we look at a likely multi million pound repair bill.

Regards Stuart Jarvis Director of Economy, Transport and Environment