Yesterday saw the draft publication of the long awaited village design statement (VDS) for Enham Alamein. This has been the result of over two years work by the dedicated team working on the project.

The idea was first mooted when neighbouring Smannell parish started their VDS. At the time Enham had neither a parish council or residents association but residents expressed an interest in developing their own VDS. I and fellow Lib Dem councillor Josie Msonthi petitioned the Test Valley’s executive for funding and support for the village to work on a VDS arguing that it would help develop community spirit and awareness. After several consultative meetings the VDS team was born and the project carried forward by the newly formed Enham Residents Association.

I remember the initial discussions and the debates as to whether the project would work. I attended early meetings and was impressed by the enthusiasm for the project within the village. The fact that the project has worked and has produced a document the whole parish can be proud of is a tribute to the hard work of the VDS team.

The draft has been published for public consultation. Full details can be found on the building and planning pages of the council’s website on http://www.testvalley.gov.uk/. Comments should be returned by 4:30 on Friday 11 July 2008.

Hampshire Conservatives over-charged council tax payers this year so they could bribe the voters with a lower increase next year - County election year. They denied it at the time, but now the truth is out. They have also announced some modest improvements to services to try to distract people from the major service cuts they are making. After increasing the council tax by 4.5% this year, when it was not  necessary to do so, they have now announced that the increase in election year will be 3.0%.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader on the County Council, Cllr Adrian Collett, said: “People are currently feeling the pain of the massive £43.38 Hampshire council tax hike this year - the last thing they needed when fuel prices are shooting up and the economy is struggling. This is having a particularly harsh impact on people on fixed  incomes, such as pensioners, who can do little about it but pay up and cut back on other things such as heating and food. Yet the Tories  think they can con people by having a lower increase during election year. People are not stupid and will see through this Con-trick.”

 ”The truth is that council tax didn’t need to go up so much this year, but the Tories wanted to get the money into the bank. In fact Hampshire has over £120 million of council tax payers money stashed away, much of which is only there due to over-charging now so that  future increases can be lower. How very cynical! The modest improvements to services are dressed up to sound good but while of course they are welcome, they don’t make up for the major cuts.”

“£1 million extra for pot holes sounds good, but until this year the County Council had been putting £3 million extra per year into highway  maintenance, so this really means that the cut is only £2 million  instead of £3 million. £400,000 for carpets and double glazing in residential homes is also  welcome as far as it goes, but Hampshire should be properly refurbishing all its care homes to bring them up to proper modern  standards. Instead of that seven homes have been closed down due to  lack of money to refurbish them, while the Conservatives allocate 100  times this £400,000 (over £40 million) on modernising their Winchester ivory tower. Comfortable offices in Winchester are more important to them than modernising our care homes.”

“Is there any proposal here to reopen any of the closed care homes? No! Or to reinstate the £1 million cut in the Casualty Reduction Programme? No! Or to prevent this summer’s major round of bus service cuts (the fourth major round of bus cuts)? No. Any improvements to much-needed services are to be welcomed, but this is just a pre-election Con-trick!” he concluded.

Story supplied by Cllr Adrian Collett - Liberal Democrat Group Leader on Hampshire County Council

The speed limit on thousands of residential roads will be reduced to 20mph under government moves designed to cut road deaths by a third over the next decade. Variable limits will be introduced on main roads near schools, with digital signs ordering drivers to cut their speed to 20mph or less when pupils are arriving or departing. Many local councils are also experimenting with 20mph speed limits on residential roads, outside playgrounds and in other high risk areas.

Your Alamein Lib Dem team firmly supports measures to control excessive speeds outside our local schools at Knights Enham, Roman Way, Shepherds Spring and Smannell schools. I am currently working with Smannell parish council to introduce traffic calming outside Smannell School to be funded by developers’ contributions from East Anton.

I will also campaign for similar controls in other residential areas where there is a local demand for such limits. Tell me what you think. Would you support 20mph speed limits where you live? Are there other areas where additional traffic calming is needed?

Romsey MP Sandra Gidley has condemned Test Valley’s recent increase in parking charges as “cynical and counter productive.”

“With petrol prices hitting 117p a litre across Hampshire” she says “visitors will be harder to attract to towns like Romsey and Andover. The Conservative controlled council’s move to introduce large increase in car parking charges in a post election year is both cynical and ill timed.”

 The higher charges are an extra tax on those who make essential journeys into town and could well drive shoppers away to larger towns.

Mrs Gidley added “We are at the start of a make-or-break opportunity for many businesses struggling to stay afloat. It seems perverse that the council is undermining their own efforts to help businesses at this crucial time by slapping large increases on parking charges.”

The increased charges were introduced to fill the large hole in council revenues left by the poor returns from rents on the borough’s run down industrial estates.

Local Labour party spokesmen have yet to comment on the increase in parking charges or on the government’s failure to manage fuel prices.

Rather than follow the lead given by Lib Dem Eastleigh borough council in collecting and recycling food waste separately Test Valley Tories decised to carry out trials on home food digesters. The wisdom of this decison has now been brought into question as a digester  in North Baddesley has become a magnet for rats.

Borough councillor Ann Tupper volunteered to trial one of the new waste digesters in her garden. “I thought it would be advantageous for me and for North Baddesley” she said. The digester cone was installed as instructed and filled with food waste. In January and February she noticed a hole and then more holes appeared. “We’ve got a rat” her husband said.

Attempts to poison the rats failed and eventually Ann asked for the cone to be removed. The waste had not decomposed and rats had burrowed in and feasted on the contents of the digester. “It’s not just one rat, its Aunty Flo and the whole family” she said.

The news comes only weeks after Test Valley Tories announced they would no longer providing a free rat control service.

As a result of pressure from Lib Dem councillors Test Valley are inviting representatives from Eastleigh to come and talk to us about how they have achieved the highest recycling rate in Hampshire. 

Today saw the opening of Sainsbury’s new supermarket on the Enham arch roundabout. The new shop is a vast improvement on the derelict Do-It-All site we have seen for the last few months. I was particularly impressed with the amount of time spent by contractors landscaping the surrounding area.

I welcome the vastly increased choice we now have for food shopping in Andover. With Sainsbury following ASDA in expanding in the town, Tesco, who have dominated the town’s food market for too long, will see some serious competion and local shoppers have some real choice.

The expansion in food retail however does raise other issues.

• While we now have a range of food shops to choose from we are still desparately short of other shops. In particular we need a major department store. I have raised this at council meetings and will continue to push for a full range of retail facilities in the town.
• The new supermarkets bring welcome new jobs to the town. But, too many local jobs are in retail and distribution. For the town to flourish we must widen the range of employment opportunities. Andover Lib Dems intend to make this a top priority over the next few years.
• Despite being raised on a number of occasions by both me and Cllr Rod Bailey we are no nearer a solution to the traffic congestion on Enham Arch roundabout. This is bound to get worse now Sainsbury’s is open. Tory council leader, Ian Carr, told us over a year ago  thast he was personally dealing with the problem. Come on Ian - tell us when you intend to resolve it.