Re-location of Horndean Surgery

As many of you will know, the Horndean Surgery has been looking to re-locate for some years – since before 2012 in fact.

Those of you who know our practice will be aware that it is in a small converted house originally intended for 500 patients. We now have around 5,500. We have seen an 18% increase in registered patients since 2012, including 300 in the last year alone. There is no potential to expand on our existing site, which is up a leafy lane with next-to-no car parking.

My reason for writing to you is that we are delighted to say that our plans are finally coming to fruition and it is our intention to relocate in late September or early October this year to a purpose-built new surgery just 200 or so paces (0.2 miles) from our existing site in Blendworth Lane to 7-9 London Road, PO8 0BN, in the heart of Horndean.

It has been a long process for us, but we have been working with our Patient Participation Group on this since before 2014 and keeping them up to speed with developments and any news, and they are fully supportive of our plans.

We have not only worked with East Hants District Council and a local developer , but we have also liaised closely with our commissioning organisations – initially NHS England and the former Hampshire Primary Care Trust and more recently NHS South Eastern Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) since it took on delegated commissioning responsibilities for primary care services in 2016.

The CCG has received a letter of support for the practice re-location from both the district council and the chairman of Horndean Parish Council.

The patient support for our plans, along with our PPG, and the local parish and district council support, has been invaluable in helping us to secure our new building and we would like to take this further opportunity to thank you for this support.

Clearly moving to a new purpose-built and a much larger site in the centre of Horndean village will provide the community we are proud to serve with improved facilities which are fit for purpose in the 21st century and meet the challenges facing primary care services today. These new premises will give us adequate space to provide a number of things that we cannot currently provide for our patients and staff, including:

• More much-needed clinical space for our existing GPs to improve their services to patients
• A training area for GPs
• Clinical space for nursing staff to help improve their services to patients
• A staff area
• A private area for patients
• A separate kitchen
• A much more appropriate sized waiting room, to further improve facilities for our patients
• Storage space
• Conference/meeting facilities
• Much improved facilities for patients with a disability, parents with pushchairs and the frail elder.

The new premises will not only serve our existing patients, but they will give us the potential to take on new patients from the additional 900 homes being built within a 500 metre radius of the site.

In 2014, in liaison with our Patient Participation Group and Patient Reference Group, we undertook a detailed patients’ questionnaire to help us adapt and develop our services in response to the needs of our patients. In the survey, we asked about potential services that could be run from the new premises which might prove useful to our patients.  A pharmacy, physiotherapy, minor surgery and orthopaedic services all featured strongly on our patients’ wish list. There is now a pharmacy next door to our new building and we are in discussions for specialist clinics include a physio, minor surgery and orthopaedic consultants.

We are also working with our Primary Care Network to develop services in the local area – some of which could potentially be offered from the new building. Our PPG is currently looking at a potential dietician coming on board and we hope to have dementia-friendly coffee mornings.

We will be exploring these options further with our patient Participation Group, but we would welcome any view that you might have on this too. We will be writing to the head of household of all our registered patients addresses to bring them up to speed with our proposed timetable, but we are already communicating with patients via the news section of our website, and our posts on our Facebook page have reached more than 3,000 people. This page has been maintained for the last two years.

And we know that a number of you have been following progress in recent years with stories in the local press including The News (Portsmouth), the Petersfield Post and most recently on April 30, 2019), the Horndean Post.

I know that this is a long letter but I thank you for taking the time to read it. If you require any further information, please email or Practice Manager Mrs Jean Smees Jean.Smees@nhs.net.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr Mark Coombe, M.B., B.S. 1989, FRCGP, MFFP, DRCOG, PGCE
Senior Partner

EH783 – Downwood Way, Horndean – Drainage Maintenance

As part of Operation Resilience, Hampshire County Council’s programme to make Hampshire’s roads more resilient to the effects of extreme weather and heavy traffic, this letter is to advise of upcoming Drainage Cleansing on Downwood Way, at the roundabout with A3 London Road.

Currently the work is programmed for Monday 22nd July 2019 and is estimated to take 5 nights to complete.

Due to the nature of the work and for safety reasons, it is necessary to carry out the works under 3-way temporary traffic signals, between the hours of 20:00 – 06:00hrs.

As a resident, you are receiving this letter to inform you that due to the close proximity of your property to the works, you are within an area which may experience some noise disturbance overnight. We are aware of the issues created by night working and will endeavour to keep noise to a minimum during the works.

In order to help us to complete the work as quickly as possible, please ensure that no vehicles are parked on the road on the days of the resurfacing. Please be aware any vehicles left parked on the road that prevent the works taking place, face the risk of being removed.

For your safety and that of our workforce, we are unable to guarantee vehicular access to and from your property during working hours. Pedestrian access will always be available.

In order to avoid potential injury or damage, please do not walk within the works area during the works unless directed by a member of the workforce.

Thank you for your co-operation and, if you need more information regarding these works, please call our contact centre on 0300 555 1388.

Did you work at the Gales Brewery? Would you like to share your stories and experiences? We are looking for a few people to film as part of this project. If you are interested please contact Rebecca on 01730 234186 or e-mail rebecca.probert@easthants.gov.uk

So the new team of local District Councillors are holding regular surgery meetings and the first will be at the Ship and Bell in Horndean on Monday 1st July between 7pm and 8pm.

Councillors from all the 5 wards plan to attend so there should be plenty of opportunity to raise issues about planning, housing, parking, bin collections, council tax and more.

While Brexit isn’t in their remit the current topic of Boris – V – Jeremy is something you might also like to pose…

Even if you don’t have a pressing issue why not join them for a drink and say hello!

In the run up to D-Day many thousands of troops from England, Canada and the United States as well as troops from occupied countries were billeted around the immediate area. Most of these quickly built up a rapport with many of the villagers. Some shared their food with villagers especially in Clanfield where the area around Manor Farm was known as the ‘Canadian Kitchens’.

Villagers also did their bit to help the servicemen. They would do their washing or invite them in for an evening and include them in their families activities. As D day got closer many more troops arrived and camped with their equipment in woods and hid their large vehicles as best they could. Queens enclosure in Cowplain was full of heavy equipment. They all knew they were here for something special but they were not sure what.

One day the servicemen gave their last sweets and cigarettes to children telling them that ‘they wouldn’t be needing them where they were going’ and on June 05 they were gone!

The photographs are of tanks lined up along the A3 in Horndean and Clanfield awaiting departure.

Sara Schillemore

Horndean Parish Council would like to welcome everyone to attend this years Armed Forces Day ceremony at the War Memorial on the 29th June at 6:00pm.

So, as one of my last posts as your District Councillor I am pleased to update you on the election results in Horndean, our adjacent villages and the wider picture at EHDC.

After the polls closed late this evening the ballot boxes were taken to Petersfield where the votes were validated (counted to make sure the right number of used and unused ballot papers are there) which takes about 2 hours. The wards are then finally counted – a process that takes about 4 hours.

This is however a very tense period… The votes are put onto the tables and counted and checked by a second party. During this the candidates and their agents are able to witness the process – usually with clipboards making notes on the numbers of votes they can see to get an early view of the result.

Trust me. After a number of years working hard in our community you want to know you were worth voting back in again. If you weren’t then…

The formal counting process is lengthy and with 40 to 50 counters and managers supervising the process it is fast moving and difficult to keep track of.

Yesterday EHDC had 43 conservative and 1 independent as the makeup and this has long been overdue for redress. It is time that there was an effective opposition. Previously our opposition has been fellow Councillors paddling in the wrong direction. Tonight a few of these members found their selves out of office.

So, what were our local results?

Sara Schillemore (Conservative) Horndean Catherington Lovedean – uncontested

Tony Denton (Conservative) takes on Downs Ward

Chris Hatter (Conservative) takes on Hazleton Blendworth ward

David Evans (Conservative) secures Hazleton Blendworth ward

Elaine Woodward (Liberal Democrats) wins Horndean Murray ward from Lynn Evans

Ken Moon (Conservative) Clanfield

Chris Hatter (Conservative) Clanfield

Malcolm Johnston (Conservative) Rowlands Castle

A very hearty congratulations to everyone who was re-elected and whatever the party politics hopefully they will represent the local community first and foremost.

At the wider EHDC the votes were as follows:

Conservative Party 32 seats

Liberal Democrats 7 seats

Labour 2 seats

Independent 2 seats

Some of the interesting outcomes of the evening…

We knew that there was a large Anti-Government feel with the way Brexit is being handled. This was reflected not only in the vote but also in the number of ‘spoiled ballots’ where ballot papers are used not to cast a vote but instead to write a message giving a view on the candidate, or in this case politics in general. Some of the spoiled ballots were very carefully thought out with their remarks. In some cases the number of spoiled ballots exceeded the number of candidates votes…

The Green party had a large number of candidates in the elections and started to gather a number of votes in some wards.

The turnout at the polls was about 30% to 35% which is larger than was anticipated.

Whoever you voted for thank you for voting – and hopefully the newly elected members will look after our interests well!

Best wishes

Guy.

So we have local elections on the 2nd May for District and Town, Parish Councils across the district. Below are some of the key dates and on this Grand National weekend, details of the runners and riders.

On Thursday 2nd May it is up to you to identify the thoroughbreds to appoint and the old nags to retire…

This year I am standing down and welcome Tony Denton, a Horndean resident and successful young businessman as the candidate to stand in Downs ward where he also lives.

At this time we also remember Cllr Nigel Wren from Clanfield who passed away just over a week ago. Arthur Agate, a Clanfield Resident, is standing in Nigels place.

Cllr Elaine Tickell who represented Hazleton Blendworth ward is also standing down and deserves acknowledgement too for work in the village centre and on LEOH from her community with Christopher Hatter standing in her place.

Brexit…

One plea – Don’t blame the candidates in these elections for the pantomime that is going on in Westminster at the moment. It is not in their control (our councillor candidates as well as the government…) and as well as being disheartened by it like everyone else it is important that the local Councils are well represented by competent people who are committed to delivering local issues and doing so well for the next 4 years.

Key Dates (The Hurdles On The Course):

• 4th April – List of candidates announced
• 12 April – Issue of first postal ballot packs
• 12 April midnight-  Deadline for receipt of voter registration
• 15 April – Update on list of candidates (removes any who have withdrawn)
• 15 April 17:00 – Deadline for changes of address or postal ballot application
• 18 April – final issue of postal ballot packs
• 25 April – Publication of final notice of elections (following any final withdrawals)
• 2 May 07:00 – Polling Stations Open.

Changes to the course!

1. Ward Boundaries have changed to all wards following a periodic review to balance the house numbers in each ward. Some of Catherington Lovedean has gone to Downs and Murray. there are changes across the district – see earlier post for a copy of the map.
2. Kings and Hazleton Blendworth wards have merged into one ward with two Councillors so you will need to vote for two candidates in this ward. The new ward is called Kings and Blendworth.
3. Polling stations have been moved – for example Downs is no longer in a local restaurant but a church hall.

Full Disclosure or anonymity?

This year candidates are for the first time able to withhold their address from the public register. The disadvantage is we do not then know if the candidate we are considering even lives in the local community. It also is not very transparent. You can only effectively represent the ward if you live in the community.

On the Runners and Riders list below I have noted the address or if this has been withheld. I am very happy to update this for any candidate with a witheld address if they contact me with details and proof of address.

Runners and Riders!

The First Trophy!

As an unopposed candidate Cllr Sara Schillemore who has represented Catherington Lovedean since 1999 is returned without an election.

Corrections:

Please contact me if there is any inaccuracy or if you are a candidate wishing their address to be updated and I will be very happy to revise the post.

Parish Council Elections:

Rowlands Castle and Horndean Parish Councils had their members returned and voted in without contest. Clanfield sees an election.

Horndean Parish Council – Elected Candidates

Catherington Ward:

• Elaine Tickell
• David Evans
• Vacancy

Downs Ward:

• Richard Veitch
• Carolyne Jacobs
• David Alexander

Kings and Blendworth Ward:

• Lynn Evans
• Irene Weeks
• Paul Beck
• Vacancy
• Vacancy
• Vacancy

Horndean Murray Ward:

• Andy Forbes
• John Lay
• Vacancy

Clanfield Parish Council – Candidates For Election

• John Bannell
• Rosemary Clarke
• Laurent Coffre
• Terry Collins
• Stephen D’Este Hoare
• Brian Foster
• David Harris
• Peter Hurst
• Sally Thomas
• Margaret White
• Stephen Williams

Rowlands Castle Parish Council – Elected candidates:

• Colin Ball
• Michael Cross
• Liz Lonmgman
• Jon Moss
• Chris Stanley
• Bill Wilson

Rowlands Castle Finchdean

• Andy Lee

A full list of the candidates are here May 2019 local elections

It is with great sadness that we saw the passing of Cllr Nigel Wren earlier this week.

Nigel had been battling cancer for several years and was a firm example of someone fighting back very hard. Treatment included many lengthy stays at both QA and University Hospital Southampton and he was due to undergo stem cell replacement shortly.

Nigel spoke very highly of every part of his care and support and also helped to secure grant funding for improvements in the wards.

I was so very sorry to hear of Nigel’s death. Nigel fought hard against the cancer for two and a half years but sadly lost the battle yesterday. My thoughts at this time are with his family and particularly his wife Brenda. Cllr Sara Schillemore

Hazleton Country Supplies which relocated from Hazleton Farm to Clanfield a short while ago is a family business he set up and ran. Along with his business which served the local community he was also a HORNDEAN Parish Councillor and a Clanfield District Councillor. Brenda and the family will be in our thoughts.

Please feel free to leave comments on this blog post to pay tribute to Nigel.

HORNDEAN Parish Council are holding their AGM on Monday 8th April at 7:00pm at Jubilee Hall. One of the agenda items is Aquind whre representatives of Aquind will be present. As always all are welcome.

CVRA would like local residents and supporters to Save the Date of Saturday 22nd June 2019 for their Summer ‘Big Lunch’. Tickets will be available from the 1st May and I will post an update blog when they are available.

The sun is booked again for this year 🙂

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The South Down Group would like to invite you to their next meeting – “Help Our Hedgehogs. As always all are very welcome!

The local Neighbourhood Policing Team would like to welcome you to their next surgery on Friday 15th March at HORNDEAN library 17:00 to 18:00

Wall to Wall Media who produce ‘Who Do You Think You Are’, ‘Back In Time’, and other series are about to commence filming a new series over the school summer holidays.

They are looking for a new family from the Hampshire area to ‘go back in time’ immersing their selves in the past world of rural village life. As such they are particularly keen to hear from families with memories of and connections to the countryside and village life.

Further details below!

At last weeks Full Council EHDC agreed to keep Council Tax at the same level as last year .

For 6 years now we have either cut or kept Council tax at the same level. Over the same period that is the equivalent of a £40 saving for every household. While we aren’t the biggest share of the Council Tax bill, for many families £40 a year is still an important sum.

This though is not the biggest story. We have identified a further saving of £355,000 which, together with some reserves, we have used to form a £1,500,000 fund to create two post. Firstly a £1m fund for Community grants and the Second a £500,000 fund for welfare projects.

In comparison last year our communities fund was just £50,000 and we had no Welfare fund. The £1.5m is also a significant sum when you consider our annual operational budget is just £11m.

These funds which will be spread through the District with grant streams lasting up to 3 years will make a significant difference to charities and organisations supporting the most vulnerable people. Organisations wishing to apply should be aware that this is not just a cashpoint for free money – we will be looking for innovative ways to multiply the cash value with volunteer support, match funding and deliverable targets to make sure that between us and the other parties we deliver significant sums to the most needy.

As the Finance Portfolio Holder I am proud to be part of an administration that is able to deliver a significant strategy such as this. (In comparison a 3% increase in Council Tax would generate just £195,000). We are bucking the national trend and plan to carry on doing so.

In comparison HCC increased their share of Council Tax by 2.99% and the Police and Crime Commissioner 13.5% for a Band D house or £24 per home per year. The Police increase is to fund a larger number of police officers which is, in my opinion, a very good reason and I support the increase.

Ok so this is a very important update about Aquind and covers a local consultation, updated details and information on how to give your views. The formal steps to a planning application have begun and now is the time to act.

PUBLIC MEETING:

The first key item is that Aquind are holding a public consultation at Jubilee Hall in Horndean on Thursday 14th March between 16:00 and 20:00. The full address is: Jubilee Hall, Crouch Lane, Horndean, PO8 9SU. There should be plenty of information for us to view as well as representatives of Aquind to ask questions from.

If you can not make it to the consultation then Aquind have deposited a full set of their documents at Waterlooville, Horndean and Petersfield Libraries.

CONSULTATION:

The second is that Aquind have triggered a consultation process which will lead to a planning application. Significantly Aquind are looking to apply directly to the Secretary of State for permission to build, rather than the local planning authority.

Their theory here is that the Secretary of State is more likely to give greater weight to the national interest of power security than local issues. The application also covers several local authorities so one view on the entire application is safer for them.

They have to consult locally before applying and the results they gather will be used as part of the application. It is important to act now.

WHAT SHOULD I SAY?:

For us in Horndean if allowed the project will have three major impacts.

1 – The highways works for the below ground cable installation which will be extensive.

2 – The construction works for the main sub-station which are likely to take several years.

3 – The long term visual impact of the new building.

I would encourage you to give a two pronged response. The first saying if you support or object to the scheme, and the second emphasising how it may be mitigated if the Secretary of State decides to allow the application. Do not be limited by the tick box questions on the form. If you have views that go beyond the stated options then please give them on the form. Please keep your responses so that when the Secretary of State has the application you can re-submit the same comments there too.

If approved then the longest term impact on the community will be the visual impact of the building and possibly electro-magnetic hum from the transformers.

The planning authority (if they grant permission) also has powers to require the applicant to do the following:

Limit construction activity to certain working hours (typically Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm, Saturday 9am to 1pm), Require a traffic management plan that minimises local impact, Require a specified amount of noise mitigation from the final scheme and more.

Personally I will be emphasising that, if allowed, the converter building must:

1 – Be sunken into the ground to 1m above the water table to minimise its effective height.

2 – The façade and roof must be constructed out of a green roof and green wall construction so as to minimise visual impact. The superstructure must be a curved / stepped back structure to have a broken up form which with the planting minimises its visual impact.

3 – A minimum of 30m of planting around the building including semi mature species of tree that will grow to the same height as the building.

4 – Noise attenuation is required to ensure that the building makes no measurable increase in noise over and above the existing substation.

5 – The green wall and roof, planting and noise attenuation must be maintained while the structure is in operation.

6 – The Developer must submit a traffic management plan to the Local planning Authority for agreement.

RESPONDING:

A very large number of residents in Horndean have received a consultation pack. If you have not then I have uploaded all of the consultation details here so you can view and respond.

Aside from the consultation pack that Aquind have sent out, you can also give your views to Aquind on email at aquindconsultation@becg.com and freepost at ‘AQUIND CONSULTATION’. However you respond their cut off date is Monday 29th April 2019. Please note that Aquind ask for a name and address for whoever is giving their view – they may decide to ignore anonymous responses so it is important to give this to validate your response and also to receive updates from them.

Please can you also copy your views into planningdev@easthants.gov.uk so EHDC can also monitor the responses and help to build our consultation reply.

Some key information:

Image below – In January 2017 the consultation kept the option open for a location in EHDC (Option 1) and Winchester (Option 3). Aquind have advised they are moving forward with option 3 (Right below).

Image below – Aquind Converter Station Plan.

Key Documents:

Cable Route Plan France to LovedeanConsultation

Document – AQUIND Interconnector

Feedback Form – AQUIND Interconnector

Newsletter – AQUIND Interconnector

PEIR NTS – AQUIND Interconnector

Red Line Boundary Sections – AQUIND Interconnector

S48 Notice – AQUIND Interconnector

DO YOU HAVE A COUPLE OF HOURS A WEEK AND WANT TO WORK WITH A FAMILY WHO MAY BE STRUGGLING?
 
Volunteering for HOME-START BUTSER can change your life, and the life of a family in your community

 We are running our next weekly Preparation Course to train volunteers to support families with at least one child under 5.  Supervision and out of pocket expenses are provided.
 
Wednesday evenings in Clanfield
27^th February 2019 – 15^th May 2019
6.30 pm – 9.30 pm
 
The only requirement is parenting experience.  We are also keen to recruit fathers and grandfathers as well as parents from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

If you or anyone you know is interested, please call us on 01730 233755 or email office@homestart-butser.org.uk. More information can be found on our website http://www.homestart-butser.org.uk.

At the end of last year there was speculation as to where Aquind would site their proposed converter station near Lovedean Power Station with the two options being the blub box in the image below (which is closer to our residents and inside EHDC’s boundary) or the green box (a little further away and in Winchester District Council)

Aquind have decided to run with the site in Winchester. This is closer to the South Downs national Park (who will certainly add weight to any comments on the environmental side) and being further away from the properties in Lovedean some small comfort but with a proposed building 22m to 26m high (subject to design) it is still going to be life changing for the local community there if it is allowed.

At this point no planning application is in but with the project classified as a ‘project of National Significance’ it is considered by the Secretary of State, not the local planning authority.

Aquind are progressing with their consultations locally and I am unaware of any on the local area but would like to make sure that everyone is aware of the one Aquind are holding in Denmead where the Parish Council have invited Aquind to their planning committee meeting on Wednesday 6th March at 7:30pm. The meeting will be at The Ashton Pavillion.

If I hear of one locally I will blog it here and have offered to Aquind to make a hall available locally to facilitate this.

Every year the Local Councils (Parish, District, County) as well as Fire Brigade and the Police and Crime Commissioner review and update their budgets. EHDC is the local authority that collects and hands on the council tax on behalf of all of these organisations and tonight we are proposing to our membership a Nil increase for Council Tax.

The changes this year as are follows:

Hampshire County Council 2.99% increase

East Hampshire District Council 0% increase

Horndean Parish Council 4% increase

Hampshire Fire and Rescue 2.99% increase

Police and Crime Commissioner 13.5% increase *

* The Police and Crime Commissioner has increased the Hampshire Constabulary precept by £2.00 per month per property or £24 per year. For a Band D property this is a 13.5% increase from £177.46 to £201.46 per year.

For the last 6 years EHDC has either cut Council Tax or kept it at a Zero percent increase.

Local Plan consultation continues – make your comment count!

The Local Plan consultation continues on Saturday 23 February when our planning team visits Barton Hall, at Horndean Technology College.

The consultation runs until Tuesday 19 March and will be touring the three parts of the district that are covered by East Hampshire District Council’s Local Plan – Alton and the northwest, Whitehill & Bordon and the southern parishes.

Saturday’s session will run from 10am-2pm at Barton Hall, Barton Cross, Horndean, PO8 9PQ 

You can see the remaining consultation dates here

Everyone attending will have the chance to comment on policies covering housing, employment, infrastructure and the environment. You can do this in writing by email or letter, but the easiest way is to submit comments online using the council’s website.

Using this method will ensure your comment is matched with the area or policy you mean to refer to. It’s a big document and some comments can be lost if it is not clear what the author is commenting about.

Sally and the team – which has grown to about 15 regular pickers – are back in action on Sunday 10th February meeting up again at Morrisons Car Park at 9:30. New faces are also welcome to join in!

Popular play project returns for some half-term fun!

Parents and grandparents of children from across East Hampshire have their February half-term plans sorted as a popular play project returns for a week of fun.

The half-term week, which runs between Monday 18 February and Friday 22 February, will see the return of a range of exciting activities to many towns and villages across East Hampshire – including Ropley, Rowlands Castle, Selborne, Headley Down and Whitehill & Bordon.

The fun-filled week of activities start in Ropley for a candle making session where the kids will get the chance to make their own candles and lanterns for them to go in. There will also be an opportunity to make something for someone special in the afternoon when a Valentine’s arts and crafts session comes to the village hall.

Local children’s entertainer and RAPP favourite, Mr Giant, returns on the Tuesday morning for a circus skills and balloon modelling show and then the kids will be able to make penguins out of recycled plastic bottles in the afternoon.

Wednesday will see local activity and games club, Redwood Active, teach some archery and fencing in the morning and help build some bushcraft and catapults in the afternoon.

Youngsters will be able to build the Antarctic out of Lego on the Thursday while learning about the animals and creatures that lived their both past and present – including dinosaurs!

The week will wind down at Woodlands Hall, in Headley Down, on the Friday with a chance to create a story out of stones and create some art out of recycled bottles – which could include making fish, rockets, bird feeders, turtles and much more!

RAPP was set up 13 years ago by East Hampshire District Council to give children up to the age of 11 (under eights must be accompanied by an adult) the opportunity to get involved in fun activities, games, adventures, workshops and meet new friends in the school holidays.

The full programme of activities, prices and locations can be found here: www.easthants.gov.uk/rapp

Get Activ8d, which provides sporting activities for children aged seven to 14, is also back for February half-term in Petersfield, Kingsley and Alton.

The Get Activ8d programme includes indoor fencing, archery and lightsabers with Redwood Active, as well as tennis, basketball, cheerleading and tennis.

The full programme of activities and locations can be found here: www.easthants.gov.uk/get-activ8d

The new online booking system is currently under construction and isn’t ready yet. To book onto the February half-term activities, please call 01730 234295 after bookings open on Tuesday 5 February at 10am.

On Sunday 20th Jan 2019 Sally and the team will be carrying out their monthly litter pick of Horndean and Clanfield. All volunteers are welcome, especially new faces. The meeting point is at the far end of Morrisons Car Park at 9:30.

All of the equipment is provided and you can pick the areas close to where you live to pick.

Apprenticeship Fair in Horndean,

Wednesday 30 January

Show-off your business to the next generation of workers

EHDC spreading the Christmas cheer

Children from across the district are in for a treat on Christmas Day thanks to East Hampshire District Council staff and councillors. More than 200 Christmas presents have been bought, wrapped and delivered to children who were put forward by local schools and charities.

Cllr Julie Butler said: “We know that there are some children across the district who would really appreciate a present on Christmas Day and may not be as fortunate as their friends. I am so proud that EHDC staff and councillors really got behind this scheme again and bought more than 200 gifts. We had a record amount this year and had so many presents that they couldn’t all fit in the van! A really great effort from everyone. It’s wonderful that as a council we can make a little difference and bring some happiness to our local children over Christmas.”

The scheme was arranged by the Alton Buckle Local Children’s Partnership which works with schools and charities. The partnership provided a list of local children’s ages and genders, allowing staff and councillors to pick out an appropriate present.

The gifts were handed on to the partnership which will then deliver them to the children for a wonderful surprise on Christmas Day.

Jen Hammersley, from the Local Children’s Partnership said: “Some families really struggle at this time of year as it can be very expensive, you don’t understand how much the families and the children will appreciate your generosity. The presents will mean so much to those children who otherwise might not have received any. They will bring smiles and happiness to the children on Christmas morning.”

If you are a local business and would like to take part in this scheme next year by inviting your staff to take part please let me know on guy.shepherd@easthants.gov.uk and I will put you in touch with the team. Each gift should be about £20 and if you like we are happy to organise the gift and wrap it if you just want to collect cash.

So nearly 3 years ago LEOH was given outline planning permission for 700 homes along with a care village and plenty of community facilities. The planning conditions that were put onto the permission were very onerous to protect against any possible risk to the water supply.

All along the coast there is a strip of land several hundred metres wide where the geology has a very thin layer of clay covering the chalk below which contains natural below ground water pathways that rise at a number of locations, one of which is The Bedhampton Springs.

This thin strip has ‘Solution features’ which we may better know as ‘Sinkholes’ or vertical pathways where any pollutant could get from the surface to the water table. HERE is an earlier blog giving more detail.

In the last few years a significant amount of site investigation work has been carried out drilling boreholes and plotting the solution features to agree an updated site layout with Portsmouth Water. As a result Bloor Homes are submitting an up to date outline planning application for Hazleton and Pyle Farms with details of the cricket pitch and care village to follow. The development will still come with the same list of community benefits, public open space, highways improvements as the original application and we are discussing what else we get for the additional 150 homes.

The site investigation results show that there are in-fact very few solution features on the land and that gives opportunity for a better layout and an additional 150 homes which prevents us having to find another area of green field land to build on elsewhere. (See blog earlier this week about The Local Plan).

So here is the updated masterplan which forms part of the updated application and we have asked Bloor Homes to conduct an updated consultation on the revised layout. The public display was held at Merchistoun Hall a few days ago but for anyone who could not get to it a full set of the display boards is below with details on how to comment.

To download the consultation boards click on this link here: Bloor Homes Horndean Exhibition Banners Dec 2018

If you would like to give feedback on this consultation please can you email it to BOTH Bloor Homes on info@exhibitionfeedback.co.uk AND copy in the Ward Councillor Cllr Elaine Tickell on elaine.tickell@easthants.gov.uk Please can you do this by the 7th January 2019.

To view the updated Outline Application please click on this link HERE where you can also post a comment before the 11th January 2019 for the case officer to review.

It isn’t often (in fact this is the first time) that I bite back with the local paper but The Horndean Post deserves a response which is a shame as The Post has usually been pretty fair. As the Finance Portfolio Holder at EHDC I could have addressed every point in The Horndean Post before they went to print but was not contacted.

The article entitled “Council spends millions in loans… on the quiet” manages to turn a great news story into an article with a negative slant so lets put some more flesh on the bone and give some more detail.

Over the last 5 years the funding EHDC receives has been cut significantly with the ‘Revenue Support Grant’ (the annual grant from central government) of about £2.5m dropped to zero and other grant income totalling a further 3.5m being progressively reduced. This leaves EHDC with a shortage of £6m every year – or about 25% of our running cost.

So, with options being to cut services or massively increase council tax, we decided to look for other solutions and did something about it. This was a multi-pronged approach including the following:

1 – Cutting the excessive fat from old style cosy easy going local councils

2 – Starting up new profit making businesses

3 – Cost savings by partnership working with other Local Authorities

4 – Long term investment portfolio for secure income

EHDC and Havant merged the senior management team of directors which has saved both Councils about £1.5m a year in salaries without affecting service. We were one of the first local authorities to consider such an unusual approach and it has been a major success for the last 8 or so years.

EHDC has some exceptionally talented officers and some lead Councillors who are or have been board directors of large successful local, national and international businesses – This gives a great opportunity for this business capability to be applied to EHDC to transform it from a traditional District Council to a modern efficient stable organisation.

We also spoke to other local Councils to look at how we could deliver the same service for less money and for services like waste disposal for example and we joined with Winchester to create a larger customer base with Biffa and a lower cost. Now that contract is ending we have just changed this to work with Havant to keep this saving moving forward. We have been able to replace the lost income every year without increasing Council tax by making EHDC more business like and through investment AND increased our services.

The property investment strategy is one we have been working on for two years – it isn’t a new stealthy initiative.

The £6.5m a year property investment will generate an income is worth £125 every year to every household in EHDC that we do not need to charge in increased tax or lost services. That has to be a GREAT NEWS story – and it is!!!

Below is a pie chart of our income. Property is a significant part of our future income. It is in fact the same size as our council tax. Not only do we secure significant cash funding from this we also generate £4m a year in rent which we do not take as income to pay off the equity in the property. In addition we build up a similar sum each year in equity as the properties grow in value.

Our multi pronged approach means that for the last 5 years we have been able to continue to provide every service to the community with no cuts. In fact, for several years out of the surplus funds we have generated we have paid for an additional 3 PCSO’s to help support the police, brought in £368,000 a year in grant funding to help local causes with £4,500 every year for local Councillors to support local good causes and several other initiatives that have also gone missed by the local press…

So in the front page of paper this week it is reported that “No trace of the spending spree can be found in easy-to-access public documents” – As a matter of fact this has been brought to 2 annual budget reports at Full Council meetings and also 3 Full Council meetings where the policy to buy property to raise funds was agreed. All of these are available online in the meeting minutes but more importantly were discussed in public forum for anyone including the press to hear being debated.

If only the press turned up at EHDC meetings occasionally then they would know all about this – in fact the cabinet meeting at EHDC tonight was the first time I have seen a reporter at an EHDC meeting for 3 or 4 years… So much for being held to account by anyone, let alone the press, who might otherwise know what was going on…

The story also explains that back bench Councillors are only told about the deals after they have been carried out – That is simple, we are bidding in a competitive market for property and the last thing we are going to do is publish our bids before deadlines to let every other local authority or investment institution know what we are willing to pay. The system is simple, we agree a strategy with all members and then get on and carry it out.

The story also notes that consultants are paid a finders fee – this is correct, just like an estate agent charges for marketing a property and securing a buyer.

So as this is being portrayed with a negative slant are EHDC doing anything wrong?

No. Property investment is being used by local authorities up and down the country to replace key income that is being lost from grant funding to ensure we can continue to provide all of our services. Our strategy has been audited by our audit and scrutiny panel as well as external auditors.Tthis is just a good business decision being carried out effectively.

Pension funds, hedge funds and a dozen other institutions also rely on property as a steady secure income and we have the advantage that we can secure funding at about 1.6% (Compare that with your mortgage rate), we have no expensive shareholder or management charges and every pound in profit goes to us, the council tax payer, and no one else. Not only do we get the income but we also get the equity growth in the property as a future bonus.

The Tesco EHDC has bought for £40m brings in £900,000,00 a year in income from a business that will be trading next year and every year for the foreseeable future – that means we don’t need to increase Council Tax to supplement this income.

As a resident of EHDC I fully support the this strategy. It underpins a low cost Council Tax base while making sure that not only can we continue to provide all of our services but also to pick up some of the services the Police, HCC and others can not afford to continue to carry out.

Holding any elected member to account is essential and part of this is the political opposition but the other part is the press. For this to be effective they need to be present at the meetings where issues are debated and I would guess this topic to have been covered at no less than 5 public meetings at EHDC.

So, I hope this helps put this great news story into context with the full story turning and helps explain how EHDC have the accolade of being the best performing District Council in the country when you look at Council Tax increases.

As to the headline “Council spends millions in loans… on the quiet” – it isn’t that it was on the quiet, just that no one was there listening when we debated it in public and agreed to do it.

For a list of the properties EHDC owns visit this link HERE

Guy.

Our current Local Plan runs from 2017 to 2028 and when we prepared this in 2012 we held local consultations which brought us to a large site at Hazleton and Pyle Farms with a comprehensive development that protected the smaller sites in our community. If you were living here at the time you will  remember the flood of speculative housing applications that we had to fight off.

Every 5 years the local plan has to be revised to make sure that it is up to date, we are meeting our housing needs and that it takes on board new government policy – If we do not keep it up to date then developers can apply to build on pretty much any bit of land and provided it is sustainable, not in a flood plane and other basic criteria, would have a good chance at success.

So, this part of the local plan focuses on our needs from 2028 to 2036, a further 8 years ahead.

There is one complication – EHDC used to be responsible for all of the planning in the district. Since the formation of The South Downs National park the park who control the majority of the land take only about 10% of the housing – something that we had to manage in the last local plan. Our local plan covers only the parts controlled by EHDC.

So, in the last review of the Local Plan the SDNPA tool about 1,000 homes in the plan period and the parts of EHDC outside of the park 10,000 homes. We were able to accommodate a very large number of these in the former Army barracks at Whitehill and Bordon which helped.

The good news is that the housing numbers across the district remain about the same post review so we are not looking at a major increase like we had in 2023 but just the same steady amount.

The next bit of good news is that LEOH has the ability to take about 100 more homes than the previous allocation which means we can avoid building on dozens of acres of green field land elsewhere.

The final major bit of good news is that we are identifying timescales when the new allocated sites can be built on so that we don’t end up with a sudden surge in housing but make sure the build rate is slow and steady.

The proposed maps for Clanfield, Rowlands Castle and Horndean are below (please remember this is the draft plana and will be going to consultation shortly, details below)

HORNDEAN SITES:

SA 33 Horndean LEOH – additional 850 homes – 2020 to 2028

SA 34 Lovedean land to rear of 191 to 211 – 33 homes – 2030 to 2032

SA 35 Catherington Parsonage Farm – 5 homes -2030 to 2031

SA 36 Lovedean Cottage Farm, James Copse – 75 to 85 homes – 2023 to 2026

SA 37 Lovedean Woodcroft Farm – 70 to 180 homes – 2023 – 2027

So this is the Draft copy which is going to be reviewed internally and go out for public consultation between 5th February and 19 March 2019 for a 6 week period. When the final consultation copy is prepared I will publish it here with the consultation links and how to respond.

In the meantime the draft copy (all 380 pages long) can be downloaded on this link and you can find the details for Clanfield, Horndean and Rowlands Castle on pages 115 to 139: Local plan Review 2017 – 2036 This also gives more detail on each individual allocated site.

Appendix A which talks about how the plan is developed, how Neighbourhood plans are incorporated and the duty to cooperate (with adjacent planning authorities) can be downloaded here: Local plan Review 2017 – 2036 Appendix A

Appendix B which is the maps for the entire EHDC region can be downloaded here: Local plan Review 2017 – 2036 Appendix B

If the land is not on these maps then it is not going to have a look in until 2037.