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HHRA Update 9 June 2025

  • pamelacharlwood
  • Jun 9

Bargate Homes application for up to 62 houses on land west of Old Street  P/24/1553/OA

Those of you who previously commented on the Bargate Homes application will have been notified of several additional documents on the planning website.  New comments may be submitted by 26 June. HHRA committee members are working through the new documentation and will challenge anything that is erroneous, misleading or weak: our comments will be drawn up over the next ten days and I will send them round once they are done.  I have asked the FBC planning officer if it is still intended to take the application to the 16 July planning committee for decision and the answer is yes.


Osborne View

HHRA vice chair Colin Hardy and I met with the project manager and site manager for the Osborne View rebuild for the first of our monthly meetings last Wednesday.  It was interesting and helpful. The provision of power to the site was completed, as planned, by the end of last week and the next major phase will be delivery of concrete to the site to provide the massive base for the huge crane which will be central to the construction process.  The concrete deliveries will take place between 16 June and 26 July and the lorries will use the access via Giblet Ore and the driveway in front of numbers 85 – 69 Hill Head Road.  There will always be a banksman overseeing the delivery. It won’t be enjoyable for anyone, but it is an essential early step in getting the scheme underway.


Fareham 999 Day

Fareham’s free 999 Day takes place on Saturday 21 June from 10am-4pm in Fareham Town Centre.  All of the local emergency service teams will be there including the police, fire service, ambulance service, coastguard, plus lots more. Children will have the opportunity to sit in vehicles, take part in activities and meet the emergency service teams.

There will also be free activities from WonderTots, with crafts, role play and games under the podium, and a special performance from the Beat 44 Police choir at 11am.


Consultations

You can see any topics that are out for consultation by going to the FBC website www.fareham.gov.uk  Have Your Say and www.hants.gov.uk About the Council Have Your Say.  We flag those which we think might be most relevant to our members, but there are always other topics which might be of interest to you.

Fareham

Closes 25th June

 

Hampshire

 

Live Longer Better

Fareham Borough Council has been awarded grant funding by Hampshire County Council to launch physical activity sessions for older people across the Borough. The funding from the 'Live Longer Better' programme, has enabled the Council to team up with Everyone Active to offer those aged over 55 the chance to experience a range of physical activity sessions in community locations across the Borough. The Live Longer Better programme is designed to improve healthy life expectancies and quality of life for older people.

Once registered, residents can enjoy four weeks of free classes, and continue at £5 per session thereafter. Classes have been arranged to take place in the heart of communities that are currently lacking these opportunities, to make them as accessible as possible.       Classes on offer are:

  • Low impact dance - Thursdays at 10.45am at Hill Park WI in Fareham Park

  • Seated yoga - Wednesdays at 12.30pm at the Sarisbury Green Social Club in Park Gate

  • Falls prevention - Wednesdays at 1pm at Broadlaw Community Centre in the Fort Fareham Ward 

To sign up, please contact Everyone Active on 01329 233652, or by visiting Holly Hill or Fareham Leisure Centres.

We know several of our members also find the Steady and Strong balance classes very helpful (and enjoyable): https://www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth/adultsocialcare/balanceclasses 


Scams

Car park Q codes: this wretched one continues to appear repeatedly: false QR codes are pasted over the genuine ones and your payment goes to some rogue, who knows where. At the very least, try to see whether there are any signs of it being stuck on top of the real code or, to be totally safe, use another means of paying.


Next meeting

Our next members’ meeting is at 7.30pm on Monday 7 July in the catholic church hall Bells Lane, when Piers Rochford from the Hampshire & IoW Constabulary Cybercrime Unit will talk to us about…. Cybercrime.

Please also have the following dates in your calendars for 7.30pm 6 October and 2 March.

 


HHRA Update 23 May 2025

  • pamelacharlwood
  • May 23

Osborne View

As you may have seen, work is underway with the rebuilding of the Osborne View.  The vice chair or I will be meeting Turvey Construction Limited before their monthly site meeting and we are also on a WhatsApp group with the site manager, so we hope to be able to keep you in touch and to raise any concerns or questions you send to us via hillheadra@hhra.org.uk.


Hill Head Road closure

Hill Head Road between Old Street and Solent Road will be closed 2 – 6 June for work by Scottish & Southern Energy.


Consultations


Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) are a new system of plans for nature recovery covering the whole of England. They are a key mechanism for planning and delivering the National Nature Recovery Network. This consultation invites views on the draft strategy. 

 

 

This is a really important initiative – do please make time to read it if you have an interest in our natural environment and do respond if you can.  Amongst other things, this will be relevant to future planning decisions. Consultation closes on 23 June 2025

 

 

Consultation closes 6 August 2025

 

Fareham is consulting about air quality:

Consultation closes 8 August 2025.

Hampshire & IoW Wildlife Trust (HIWWT)

I recently had a very helpful meeting with a senior manager from HIWWT about various initiatives they are taking in this area – if you would like more information, do email me on hillheadra@hhra.org.uk and I will attempt to summarise!


Bargate Homes planning application for houses on fields west of Old Street

There is nothing new to report since our last Update and we still expect it to go to the planning committee meeting on 16 July.


Longfield Avenue planning appeal: 1200 houses and infrastructure

A decision on this is expected by about 8 July.


Shellfish picking

We know how frustrating it is to see large numbers of people at low tide gathering shellfish, almost certainly for commercial use.

One of our members who raised concerns received the following reply from Senior Environmental Health Officer Wendy Shakespeare wshakespeare@fareham.gov.uk :  

With regards to shellfish hand gathering activities each year the food team undertake enforcement visits to the beach and where we are able, we take action. This may range from advice through to voluntary surrender or seizure, we usually do this in conjunction with Police and Southern IFCA officers.. We liaise with other agencies too such as GLAA GLAA. The issue of shellfish hand gathering is complex, from a food point of view, harvesting for personal consumption is not legislated so people can technically collect however much they want. Commercial harvesting comes with some caveats – they can only harvest filter feeding species from classified production areas (the areas may only be classified for certain species). Non filter feeders can be harvested outside of classified areas but they must be safe to place on the market. All commercial harvesting must be accompanied by a registration document. It is rare we find actual evidence of commercial activity.

 

We have many residents who provide information on harvesting activities and may send details of day/ time, numbers harvesting, types of species being collected, car number plates where it is safe to do so and I share this information with SIFCA, Police, Food Standards Agency Crime Unit and the GLAA to build up a picture of those involved in shellfish hand gathering activities and the scale of activity.

 

On occasions we have been involved in large multi-agency events, these are usually arranged by the police or GLAA and are a significant resource involving many officers so would only be done where the intelligence suggests this is warranted.

 

We also participate in multi-agency liaison groups and action groups when scheduled throughout the year to plan or discuss these activities and share intelligence.

 

Any litter issues or faeces on the pavement or layby can be reported to our streetscene department publicspacesfrontline@fareham.gov.uk  for cleansing. I’ve also forwarded your email to our enforcement team who look at littering.

Water Quality

Weekly checks of water quality by the Environment Agency commenced 15 May: see https://environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles/

 

Waste management

Despite the article in the recent Fareham Today describing the introduction by 2026 of new waste management/recycling arrangements, an even more recent item on BBC News suggests it must await the completion of the new recycling facility at Eastleigh, so a 2027 rather than 2026 target date:


Scams

A couple of recent ones:

Aldi offering you a reclaim voucher – the email address makes it clear it certainly is not from Aldi

An offer of29,000 euros via Bitcoin.  No – really not.


Meetings

A reminder about forthcoming meetings, all 7.30pm on Monday at the catholic church hall Bells Lane:

  • 7 July Piers Rochford South East Cyber Crime Unit - Hampshire

  • 6 October Inspector Robert Kearley - our local police inspector

  • 2 March Keith Thomas GAFIRS (Gosport & Fareham Inshore Rescue Service)

 


HHRA Update 5 May 2025

  • pamelacharlwood
  • May 5

Bargate planning application for up to 62 homes on land west of Old Street P/24/1553/OA

We understand that this application is likely to go to the planning committee at 2pm on 16 July; papers for that will be published on or around 9 July.  Members of the public may attend planning committee meetings at the civic centre and may also apply to make deputations, which HHRA will certainly do.  If there is anything new that you wish to say about the application, you can send comments to the planning officer: go to www.fareham.gov.uk Planning Search and enter the application reference above.

We have asked Cllr Pal Hayre if she has had any response from HCC Highways about the concerns which have been raised by so many of us about road safety.


Old Street traffic speed and safety

On a linked point, we have also returned to the topic of traffic speed, volume and safety on Old Street and have asked Pal Hayre to go back to HCC: it was raised when Cllr Adams King visited us in December 2022 but nothing further has happened.  As you may well be aware, however, there was a very serious hit and run accident in December.


Osborne View rebuild

As many of you will have seen, work has started on the rebuild of the Osborne View.  I have been in touch with Turvey Construction and Hall & Woodhouse about communication with neighbours and the public: I am promised that a plan will be forthcoming after a project team meeting next week.  I will share it with you as soon as possible.


Shellfish gathering

Sadly, this topic is now back on our agenda.  To remind yourself of what is allowed and who is responsible for what, please go to www.fareham.gov.uk Licensing, Licensing and Inspection, Shellfish Gathering.  In simple terms, it is always useful to take vehicle registrations, as long as that does not place you at risk, and the  contact at FBC is Ian Rickman irickman@fareham.gov.uk.


HHRA website

Shellfish gathering is also one of the many topics included on our own website: www.hhra.org.uk Local Information, Community Safety.  Do please familiarise yourself with the website, which has a wealth of information on it.


Anti social behaviour at and around Salterns car park

We have written to our FBC councillors and Inspector Kearley setting out concerns about repeated serious anti social behaviour in and around Salterns car park.  We have asked for the two agencies (police and FBC) to liaise over action and meanwhile all we can do is advise you to ring 101 and report it if you see and hear such activities.  We will feed back any response we have  from FBC and police.


Daedalus development

A member at our last meeting asked about progress on the Daedalus development (not the airport, but the housing and other buildings that we heard about in September 2023).  There is progress with planning consent by Gosport Borough Council and you can see more detail via this link: 


Devolution and local government re-organisation

In response to a member's plea at our last meeting for a briefing about what is and might be happening in local government, please find attached a briefing note which I have prepared. (Others have contributed, but any errors are my responsibility!)  A copy will also be on the Latest News section of our website.  You may also have seen a good briefing (rather similar to this HHRA one, in fact....) on the BBC local news website today.


Dog walking regulations and signage

Again, following up a request at a recent meeting, we are preparing a briefing note for FBC about the inconsistency along different stretches of the Hill Head seafront about what dog owners are permitted to do at different times of year.  We are also flagging the poor visibility of the signage in some areas.  We understand one of the senior officers at FBC has been nominated to take a lead on working with relevant organisations to review the situation and we will keep you posted.


Scams

A recent scam purports to come from the DVLA saying you have not paid your vehicle tax.  However, the email address defies belief and is certainly not from the DVLA.


Stubbington Study Centre

Our friends at Stubbington Study Centre had a celebration on Saturday to thank all those who joined the campaign to save them from closure.  Lynne Murray (who prepared our bid for its listing as an Asset of Community Value and made a deputationa at the Cabinet meeting), joined me and it was delightful to participate in such a happy event.


As yet, we have heard no news about whether a site has been identified for the replacement of Swanwick Lodge.


Subscriptions

All but eight members have now paid their subscriptions.  The eight wil be removed from the circulation list this week and will receive no more Updates..... do you really want to miss out on such fascinating news??


Members' meetings

We now have dates for our next three meetings:

  • Monday 7 July 7.30pm  Piers Rochford South East Cyber Crime Unit - Hampshire

  • Monday 6 October 7.30pm Inspector Robert Kearley - our local police inspector

  • Monday 2 March 7.30pm Keith Thomas GAFIRS (Gosport & Fareham Inshore Rescue Service)





Copyright - Hill Head Resident's Association 2025
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