Hook Parish Council: Monthly Bulletins 2010 |
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June 2010
Attendance at the Annual Village Meeting increased yet again to 130 people. Community Awards were presented to Ted and Kate Blackman in recognition of their many years of managing and caring for the old Elizabeth Hall and to John Clements in respect of his work as a founder of Hook Bowling club and to Irene Clements for her key contribution to Hook Brownies.
The two issues that attracted most interest at the Annual Village meeting were Hart's possible ideas for new housing in the District up to 2026. Various developers hold options to purchase almost all the fields around Hook and around every other settlement in Hart. They are all trying to persuade Hart that their ideas are the perfect solution for possible new housing. Once Hart have evaluated all the sites and proposals there will be a period of public consultation which is not likely to start until the autumn.
The second issue of key importance at the Annual Village meeting was Parking. Following a residents' petition last year Hart have been working on plans for restrictions round the schools particularly at school drop off and pick up times when parents and carers park in Church View and Bell Meadow Road. Consultation with residents in that area, initially on an informal basis, is now taking place.
We are working with Hart to address three other Parking issues in central Hook. The same consultants are about to start on a project to address the problems caused to residents by all day commuters obstructing drives in Raven Road. Following the necessary advertising a traffic order has been made to place a time limit on waiting at Fairholme Parade. Consideration will be given to restricting waiting in the lay-by outside the London Road shops. The objective in all these cases is to give parking preference to residents and shoppers, not to commuters.
A rather different issue is antisocial, illegal and potentially dangerous parking on the pavement outside St Michael's Hospice Charity Shop in Station Road. This sort of parking does not become permissible simply because the driver is making the laudable effort of a donation to charity! We are working with Hart, Highways and the Police as well as the shop to find a solution.
Hart's intention to close the Hook public toilets as a cost saving measure unless the Parish Council agree to take them over has been mentioned in Focus on a number of occasions. Whilst we all believe that such a facility should continue to be available to our community and that it is particularly valuable for events our Members are currently almost evenly split on the community, business and financial merits of the idea that we are currently investigating of converting most of the building to two small retail units whilst retaining one multi-use toilet. We are still working on the legal issues and obtaining firm costings so as to report to Members for a final decision. The toilets are currently closed and that situation will be permanent unless we decide to take them over. This is the very last opportunity for residents to express an opinion!
At our Annual Meeting in May Martin Whittaker was re-elected Chairman of the Council and Gordon Winter was elected Vice Chairman. Jane Bonnin, Antony Hunter and Nigel Carpenter will continue to Chair the Planning, Amenity and Development Strategy Committees respectively.
Antony Hunter
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May 2010
The Annual Village Meeting will be taking place as Focus is distributed. Unfortunately due to strict rules in the run up to a General Election the RAF are not permitted to attend. A final reminder that the AVM is at the Elizabeth Hall on Tuesday 27th April from 8pm. We hope to see yet another increase in numbers attending this year!
A total of fourteen roads have been nominated by residents for salt bins and we are passing the list to Highways who will assess it against their allocation criteria. At this stage we do not know how many bins might be available for Hook but it seems likely that the number will be significantly lower than fourteen and that priority will be given to those roads which have the steepest gradient.
At the April Parish Council meeting members approved a grant request from the Hook Allotment Association. The grant totalling £10,000 is towards set up costs of £18,000 at the Blackstock Lane site in Nately Scures and will be released in two stages as work progresses.
As long ago as 2006 an application for eleven houses on the site of The Bungalow in London Road was refused by Hart. The applicant's appeal was allowed by the Planning Inspectorate in 2007. However that approval required realignment of the A30 and we believed that the changes to the A30 would make it necessary to move a fibre optic cable. It seems clear that the cost of the road works would have been more than the scheme could fund. Although the developer has submitted an application to renew the existing permission he has now also submitted a proposal for a total of five units on the same land on which he wished to build eleven dwellings. This proposal, with access from the A30, is naturally less unacceptable but although the new plan would eliminate the need to realign the road we have concerns about the level of parking in the proposal as well as aspects of the design.
The public toilets in the Reading Road car park are owned and currently maintained by Hart. Hart made it clear during 2009 that unless we took over responsibility for running costs and maintenance the toilets would be closed at the end of 2009. Hart agreed to postpone closure to give us time to evaluate and cost conversion of part of the building to retail use with the objective that retaining a toilet facility would be largely funded by rental income. We reached no final decision at the April Parish Council meeting and the item was deferred for a month pending final discussion of options with Hart.
The surgery has recently applied for a pharmacy licence which would allow them to dispense medicines. After discussion we decided not to comment on the application. If the application is approved by the Primary Care Trust a separate planning application would be needed in order to extend the surgery building into their car park.
Casual parking in the Parish Council car park in Ravenscroft has meant that around 12% of the available space has been wasted at peak times. White lined spaces have now been painted which means that thirteen additional vehicles can be accommodated provided drivers use the marked spaces. Please do not park in the disabled spaces unless carrying an official disabled badge or in the two permit holder spaces which are provided for essential users of the Community Centre!
Antony Hunter
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April 2010
As previously announced the Annual Village Meeting will be on Tuesday 27th April at the Elizabeth Hall from 8pm. The evening will start with exhibits provided by some of the many organisations which work with us during the year. More than a dozen Exhibitors will include Hampshire Highways, RAF Odiham, Hook Allotment Association, Odiham Cottage Hospital Charitable Trust, the Police and The Base. This is an opportunity to walk round and talk informally with the various organisations. The formal meeting itself will start around 8.30 with answers to your questions. Please submit questions in advance to clerk@hook.gov.uk or by letter to the Parish Council office to allow us to carry out any necessary research. Questions submitted on the night will also be answered if time permits.
Over the last few years more and more of Hook's office space has become empty. Working habits are changing with the result that the need for bricks and mortar office space has been declining. Landata House in Station Road, roughly opposite Berry Court, has been empty for many years, is deteriorating and in potential danger of vandalism. We believe that this site would be better used by redevelopment for residential use to provide predominantly the one and two bedroom units that are currently so lacking in Hook. The site is in easy reach of shops and public transport. The developers are arranging, with our help, a public exhibition of their plans which will take place at on Saturday 17 April between 10 and 12.30 in Hall 3 at the Elizabeth Hall, Raven Road, Hook RG27 9HH. Members of the Parish Council will be on hand to discuss your opinions so do come and look at their ideas!
Since the beginning of January we have been running a trial of free parking for one hour at the Reading Road car park with the dual objectives of providing free parking and encouraging people to use the car park rather than park in residential roads. Although 30% of those buying tickets have claimed reimbursement the scheme has failed to persuade people to use the car park rather than park in residential roads, particularly near the schools, as less than four additional cars a day have been using the car park. Consequently the scheme will not become permanent and will end on 31st March. All claims for reimbursement must be made by that date. A more positive response by drivers to the scheme would have helped but not solved parking in the centre of Hook, so we are now looking to work with Hart and the Police to find other solutions.
Hampshire County Council has asked us to nominate roads in which grit bins might be installed, however we have not been given any indication as to the number of bins that might be allocated to Hook. Although there are no strict criteria it is clear that safety and benefit to highway users, both drivers and pedestrians, will be a key factor. Roads that do not have a significant gradient or usage are unlikely to be considered. We need to compile our list by Monday 19th April and it currently consists of Chalky Copse, Goose Green, Nursery Close, Painters Pightle and Brown Croft. Please email additional ideas to clerk@hook.gov.uk.
The roads, sewers and street lights at Holt Park are in the process of being adopted by Hampshire County Council. Remedial work to bring them to adoptable standard is currently being carried out, partly because standards have moved on since grant of planning permission some six years ago and also because certain installations have suffered from wear and tear since they were originally built.
Over the last year we have been working with Hampshire Highways on traffic issues in the Four Acre Coppice area. The final outcome of that work is published in this month's Focus.
Antony Hunter
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March 2010
The Annual Village Meeting with be on Tuesday 27th April at the Elizabeth Hall from 8pm. The evening will start with exhibits provided by some of the many organisations which work with us during the year. Exhibitors will include Hampshire Highways, Hart Community Safety, Hook Allotment Association, Odiham Cottage Hospital Charitable Trust and The Base. This is an opportunity to walk round and talk informally with the various organisations. The formal meeting itself will start around 8.30 with answers to your questions. Please submit questions in advance to clerk@hook.gov.uk or by letter to the Parish Council office. The number of residents attending has grown every year since we introduced this format to the event so do put a note in your diary. Further details will be in April Focus.
Our free one hour parking trial got off to a slow start due to snow with the result that residents did not really start to make use of the scheme until the third week in January. The original concept was for a two month trial covering January and February and for the decision to be made on making the trial permanent, or abandoning the scheme, at the Parish Council Meeting on 3rd March. Use of the scheme has grown in the last few weeks but it is noticeable that at peak times a significant number of people are still queuing in Station Road for a space in the Grand Parade car park rather than parking in the Reading Road car park. Despite the delay in the scheme getting underway, because of the weather, we still need to make a decision on 3rd March so that if we want to make the scheme permanent Hart can incorporate this change in the legal process that is about to take place for parking in the rest of the District. Our decision on the future of the scheme will be posted on our notice boards and in the retailers that are handling reimbursement for us under the trial. In the meantime we are extending the scheme for both eligibility and reimbursement until Friday 14th March.
Hart will be holding a further Graffiti Busting week from Monday 29th March to Monday 5th April. The team will clean Graffiti from private property as well as from publicly owned buildings so do report instances to Hart on 01252 774229 as soon as possible to help them to plan their schedule.
A licence to sell alcohol was granted to Texaco almost a year ago despite objections by a number of residents. Licensing laws are more liberal these days provided the outlet concerned obeys the law. Texaco recently failed on two test purchases and their licence was suspended pending the introduction of improved staff training and supervision.
However Texaco have now decided to surrender the licence completely with effect from the end of February.
We understand that Central Government are in the process of distributing a leaflet to every home as part of their drive to curb antisocial behaviour. The leaflet mentions the introduction of local procedures for reporting instances in a non emergency situation. Within Hart such cases can be reported via a link on the front page of Hart's web site at www.hart.gov.uk or to 01252 774476.
Residents at Holt Park have understandably wanted a post box to be installed for some four years but until recently Royal Mail was not willing to install one because the roads have not been adopted by Hampshire Highways. Adoption of the roads is still some months away but Royal Mail have now installed a post box on land that is and will continue to be owned by the Parish Council. The box is in the centre of the estate and close to Sedges.
Antony Hunter
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February 2010
Hook Community Awards will be presented again this year at the Annual Village Meeting on Tuesday 27th April at the Elizabeth Hall. We have already received several nominations but more are most welcome and should be sent by letter to the Clerk at the Parish Council office or by email to clerk@hook.gov.uk. The only firm rule is that any individual, group or business must have contributed to our Community over some years on a voluntary basis. Brief details of the reasons are all that is needed as we can work with those making the nomination if required. Closing date for nominations is Monday 1st March so that our panel can reach decisions during March.
Our car park refund scheme has inevitably got off to a very slow start indeed because of the weather. It does now need strong support from residents for unless the scheme becomes popular Hart will not pay for a machine that is able to issue tickets to allow one hour of free parking and the project will be abandoned. We appreciate that the need to supply used reminder slips to one of the outlets that are working with us is tedious but we need to prove that demand for an hour of free parking exists. Hart's car park is massively underused and our scheme, if it becomes permanent, will help shoppers, visitors to medical facilities and those on the school run as well as reducing short term parking on residential streets. This really is a case of "use it or lose it!"
The Parish Council car park in Ravenscroft is heavily used at school pick up time and we believe that some are driving "the long way round" because there is no space to park near the schools. Using our free car park trial is surely a good way to save time and petrol and help show if the scheme should become permanent.
The most important item on our January Parish Council meeting, which was postponed to 20th January because of snow, was to set the Parish Council Precept for 2010 to 2011. At the depth of the recession we were able to set the 2009/10 precept at £299,000 compared to £312,000 in the previous year by making economies and by deferring some projects. We currently have £24,000 of projects under investigation so by putting the precept back to £312,000 we will be able to carry out some of them if they prove to be cost benefit justified. They include keeping the public toilets open and free parking for up to an hour in Reading Road car park. This expenditure would be in addition to normal running costs and the work that we are planning to the Community Centre. A fuller update will be included in our Annual Report which will, as usual, be distributed to every home in April.
The exceptionally heavy snowfall in early January caused major disruption in our area and to the country as a whole. In such a situation Hampshire County Council Highways must put their resources into clearing and keeping clear the 25% of main roads that carry 85% of the traffic. Much of this work is carried out by their own vehicles and crews but they also have arrangements with farmers who will turn out with snowploughs when required. Our own landscape contractor and his team concentrated on clearing routes to school including our Car Park in Ravenscroft along with footpaths on Parish Council owned property. All this means that there is very little resource in terms of manpower or money available to clear residential roads. However we and the local Highways office are considering ways in which some "self help" facilities might be made available for residential roads.
The freeze and thaw followed by rain will produce potholes and it would help Hampshire to schedule repair work if potholes are reported to roads@hants.gov.uk mentioning the road involved, as accurate a location of the pothole as possible, the fact that it is in Hook, and the size of the pothole by rough diameter and depth.
Antony Hunter
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January 2010
It has been clear for some time that very many residents want free short term parking in the Reading Road Car Park to help shopping, the school run and visits to Medical facilities in particular. The idea received a spontaneous round of applause at the Annual Village Meeting last April. A trial will take place from 1st January 2010 to 28th February 2010 and during the trial the Parish Council will reimburse 35p on production of the reminder slip from 30 minute tickets and 70p on production of the reminder slip from one hour tickets. There will be no partial reimbursement for longer stays. If the trial proves popular Hart expect to install a new machine which will issue a ticket for up to one hour at no charge. Parking restrictions are very likely to be introduced near the school in early 2010 both for safety reasons and to protect residents' drives. We know that a number of school-runners drive right past the Reading Road car park to the already overcrowded Parish Council Car Park where measures are likely to be introduced to enforce disabled and permit holder spaces and improve safety. Please help make the trial a success by changing habits now and using the Reading Road Car Park from 1st January.
A number of businesses have kindly agreed to help by providing cash reimbursement on presentation of the reminder slip from 35p and 70p tickets namely Londis, Just Quality Flooring, Trees, Hook Dental and Boots Chemists in addition to the Parish Council office. The Infant and Junior Schools hope to participate and will provide information in their newsletters. The Parish Council will then cover the refunds from your Council Tax. For legal reasons we are unable to promote the refund scheme in the car park itself.
Whilst we are sorry that the need to buy a ticket and obtain a refund will involve a certain amount of hassle this has proved to be the only practical way of running the trial. Considerable effort has gone into reaching this stage and we need your support if the free parking for up to one hour scheme is to become permanent. If the scheme does not receive support reimbursement will cease and the project will be abandoned. There are no viable alternatives in prospect. Reminder slips can be "saved up" but please submit them for reimbursement by 14th March 2010 at the latest.
On a number of occasions we have mentioned Hart's intention of closing the public toilets in Reading Road due to the high cost of routine cleaning and overall maintenance. Although we have mentioned possible closure in Focus on a number of occasions we have had minimal reaction from residents and it may not be appreciated that once they are closed and boarded up the facility will be lost forever. Hart has now set a closure date of the end of March 2010 unless the Parish Council takes on responsibility for them. We are working on an idea which would retain one unisex/disabled toilet but convert the rest of the building to one or two lettable kiosks which should provide sufficient income to fund the running costs of the building as a whole. The total lettable space would be about 345 sq.ft.. and ideally suited to two retail units each staffed by one person. Anyone who might be interested is asked to contact the Parish Council Office.
September Focus mentioned that, after studying the traffic flows through Four Acre Coppice, Highways were of the view that the most appropriate way forward would be to introduce an "Access Only" restriction. However the Police are more inclined towards a road closure with the implication that all traffic from the Holt Lane area, including Holt Park, would travel via the A30. Comments to clerk@hook.gov.uk please!
Antony Hunter
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