In the last few days the scenes in Paris have shocked the Western World and security services in France anticipate further attacks. For some years now, the terror threat in the UK has been pretty high on the agenda and local authorities regularly get briefings on the terrorist risk and things to look out for. At our community police briefings it is a permanent agenda item and for members of the public who use trains, let alone planes, the warnings to be aware of left luggage etc are now background noise.

So, how does this affect Horndean? Well, as well as the duty to represent this community, George Hollingbery MP is helping to prepare a counter-terrorism bill giving the government extra powers to track extremists, said the threat to the city and its surrounding areas should not be ignored but residents should not worry as ‘huge efforts’ are being made on a local and national level to block any potential attack.

Speaking to The Portsmouth News, Mr Hollingbery said: ‘We have ferries, the naval base, we have police stations, we have public attractions, like many other cities, so it would be very foolhardy to say nothing will happen in Portsmouth. That said, huge efforts are being made to ensure that an attack doesn’t happen. All the security services and the government are doing their utmost to ensure the sort of atrocities we have seen in Paris will not happen here in Portsmouth.’

And he added: ‘It’s likely that more attention rather than less attention by the security services will be put on what is happening in Portsmouth. They are aware of the people that have left here to fight in Syria but it is very important everyone understands that I am in no way privy to what MI5 is doing and its intentions.’

Four men from Portsmouth are known to have died in Syria fighting for terror organisation Isil in the past year and another jihadi from the area is still believed to be there.

The Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill seeks to expand on what can be done to track extremists and ensure they do not pose a risk to the public. George is helping to pass the bill through parliament in his role as parliamentary private secretary to Home Secretary Theresa May. The bill proposes giving the government greater powers to electronically terminate the passports of known terrorists. For example, a terrorist attempting to fly back to the UK would not be able to as their travel document would show up as invalid when trying to get through an airport. That person would then have to make arrangements with the government to travel back before they are prosecuted.

But Mr Hollingbery said that person would likely keep their British citizenship given the ‘sensitive matter’ over whether the government should be in a position to leave someone stateless. The bill puts forward plans restricting where suspected terrorists should live as was the case under previous ‘control orders’ imposed by the previous government. Security firms would be able to access to the computer ID addresses of people who it suspects to be promoting extremist activity to keep track of what they are doing. It also seeks to tighten UK border security and make it mandatory for a range of authorities to have anti-radicalisation strategies.

Click here to read the full text in The News.

Je Suis Charlie.

As the New Year dawns, I’m going to offer some helpful numbers, hints and facts to help us through the winter.

The Meon Valley is sadly plagued with flooding on some scale every winter. Twelve months ago needs no introduction and fingers crossed a repeat is not coming, but we must be prepared. Many local areas like Hambledon, Finchdean and Cheriton operate flood action groups to co-ordinate a response to threats. Their work is invaluable, as shown last winter, and for many it will be the first stop if problems start. A call to the local parish council clerk will hopefully get you a contact number.

A major problem with flooding last year was inconsiderate drivers ploughing through standing water and soaking residents while causing even more damage to property. Can I take the time to ask motorists coming across flooding to slow down. At the least it will cause less inconvenience and at the most it could save lives – yours included.

And if you don’t believe me, perhaps these facts might help persuade you:
Standing water creates the potential for aquaplaning (when a vehicle skids through the water with no traction or control) and can also significantly reduce the driver’s visibility.
Anyone who thinks this is fun should also remember as little as an egg cupful of water being sucked into the combustion chamber of most vehicles will completely ruin the engine – prompting a costly repair bill.
And only 60cm of standing water will float most cars completely and just 30cm of flowing water will usually be enough to move the average family car.
Finally, a good proportion of flood related deaths – around 32% – occur in a vehicle so please don’t take unnecessary risks.

The Environment Agency has a flood map and operates flood warnings across the country along with helpful tips and actions for residents on its website at: http://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency or you can telephone the flood line on: 0345 988 1188

Here also are the contact details of the district and county councils:-
Winchester City Council: 01962 840222 http://www.winchester.gov.uk
Havant Borough Council: 023 9247 4174 http://www.havant.gov.uk
East Hampshire District Council: 01730 266551 http://www.easthants.gov.uk
Hampshire County Council: 0845 603 5638 http://www.hants.gov.uk

By now letters will be arriving across Horndean, Rowlands Castle and Clanfield from George Hollingbery MP conveying his concerns about development in East Hants, and especially South of Butser.

As District Councillors we work closely with George on certain issues and ensuring we join our efforts on key planning applications and work to protect our community as best we can are key. George is leading an initiative with a planning summit which will be supported by a barrister from London who has very current and relevant experience in structuring objections to applications. This will help to ensure we are making the best use of case history to oppose unsuitable developments. This will be attended by representatives from EHDC as well as District and Parish Councillors and representatives from community groups and residents associations.

This summit will be followed up with a Public Meeting on the evening of the 17th October. If you would like to take part in this meeting can you email George on george.hollingbery.mp@parliament.uk with ‘Planning Meeting’ in the subject line with your full name, telephone number and postal address of everyone who would like to attend and George’s office will send out formal details shortly.

Now the nights and the temperatures are drawing in it’s sadly time to start preparing for the winter months; and here in the Meon Valley, that means doing all we can to stop flooding. The warm summer days may have lulled some of us into believing that last year’s rainfall was just a bad dream, but for many still living with the effects, the issue is very much ongoing. So I’m pleased to report that Hampshire County Council is doing its best to try and alleviate some of the problems.

All along the A272, through villages like Bramdean and Kilmeston, the roadside ditches are being cleared to ensure that this main arterial road remains open. Culverts and pipes across the constituency are also being surveyed to pick up blockages and root damage in an attempt to nip potential problems in the bud. In addition, strimming and clearing vegetation from ditches is also under way. In Cheriton, the Environment Agency has looked at all of the gulleys and ditches and has surveyed bridges to ensure that water can flow as quickly as possible, if the heavens do open again.

At Finchdean, the main drainage culvert through the village has had a CCTV camera passed through to pick up any damage. Flint and gravel deposits are being cleared from ditches and bridges there too. In Hambledon, where the flooding was worst, ditches and pipes are being cleared and checked. There has also been some engineering works going on but these are not centred on the main pipe, which is still waiting for funding approval. An announcement about funding for the pipe should be soon and I continue to press all those concerned to ensure that the cash is found. This work is absolutely vital if Hambledon is avoid the misery of last year in the years to come.

The measures above will most certainly help but I very much hope the rainfall levels in the coming months do not match those of last winter.

Recently I discovered a great deal about an important issue that is going to affect many of us, either directly or indirectly, when I went on a Dementia Friends Awareness session. And the reason it’s so important is simple, and a little frightening: there are currently 800,000 people with dementia in the UK and there will be more than a million by 2021.

If that isn’t worrying enough, according to the Alzheimer’s Society, the proportion of people with dementia doubles for every five year age group as we live longer and 60,000 deaths a year are directly attributable to it. Alzheimer’s grabs the headlines because it’s the most common form, but there are around 100 forms of dementia including vascular dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies, and the fear and challenges of having the disease, or caring for someone who has it, makes for a devastating situation in many families. So the Alzheimer’s Society and Public Health England’s excellent Dementia Friends initiative is helping people be more aware and cope with the condition, while educating the general public about some of the issues surrounding what will be increasingly commonplace in our society.

The story is not all grim, as I learned during the session, as many people continue fulfilling lives with the condition with the right approach, medication and support. But the wider public need to know more if people with dementia can have a better quality of life because there is more to a person than dementia and the problems it inevitably can cause. One thing I was told that got me thinking was how important it is for people to create a memory book in middle age which could be a source for carers to help those people if they get dementia as the oldest memories tend to be the last to go.

One other solution are dementia friendly high streets with Lyndhurst, Fareham and Romsey in Hampshire already so named as shop staff have had training to help people with dementia and react if they become confused. I very much hope that some of the towns in the Meon Valley will also become dementia friendly in the coming months. So this super initiative is going to make all of us more dementia friendly and hopefully a little more dementia ready to face the challenge of this awful condition.

More information about the campaign and details of how you can become a Dementia Friend can be found on their website: http://www.dementiafriends.org.uk

Below follows a message from George Hollingbery, our local MP on Speeding:

A good proportion of my constituency post bag is about the noise and speeding of motorcyclists on rural roads in Hampshire. There is no doubt this is a real problem with very large groups of bikers travelling on the county’s roads, particularly at weekends and on summer evenings when the noise can be continuous for residents.

Volumes of riders are high on the A272, A31 and the A32, which are real favourites, but other routes such at the Corhampton and Morestead road and several others down near Rowlands Castle and Denmead also have issues. These vehicles are presently allowed on the road just like any other, but many residents are fed up with the dangerous speed they travel through villages, some of their manoeuvres while on the road, road racing between bikers and the sheer noise of the high-performance machines with illegal track exhausts.

The letters and emails about this has got to such a level I have called for a meeting with the police and crime commissioner Simon Hayes and local parish and district councillors so that they can air their grievances. It’s clear that the police are the lead on this issue and have done work to try and address the problem. I know that new 360 degree mobile speed cameras can capture motorcycle registrations and I will be pressing that they are deployed more often at hotspots.

Now there are, of course, always issues about motorcycle safety – something that has rightly attracted a great deal of government money and high profile campaigns on television, and I accept that we are talking about a minority of bikers spoiling things for the law abiding majority. It’s a startling fact too that motorcyclists are roughly 35 times more likely to be killed in a road traffic accident than car occupants, per mile ridden and in 2012, 328 motorcyclists died and 5,000 were seriously injured in road collisions in Great Britain. But perhaps some of the money properly spent on avoiding fatalities involving motorcyclists with slogans like ‘Think Biker, Think Bike’ should also be spent on educating that minority of nuisance riders of their responsibilities to residents living on routes they wish to ride.

Perhaps the slogan should be altered a little to: ‘Think Biker, Think Residents‘.