HHRA Update 15 April 2026

Driver Skills Scheme 60+

You may recall that in my 25 January Update I mentioned the Hampshire County Council Driver Skills Scheme for those of us who are over 60.  Since then, a number of HHRA members have done the assessment and yesterday I did mine.  The reaction of all of us who have done it is very positive: the assessor comes to your house, goes through various admin points for ten minutes or so, then you go for a short drive (typically, Stubbington, involving parking and everything else that one encounters in the village) with some initial feedback. Next is a longer drive – I did junction 11 to junction 9 of the motorway, returning via Posbrook Lane, concluding with another ten minutes or so general feedback and advice. The total time taken is 90 minutes.  The assessor is a very pleasant person with many years’ experience as a driving instructor and she does a number of different jobs now, eg assessments arising from a medical referral.

The outcome may be

·       Safe drive with further assessment in 24 months’ time

·       Satisfactory drive with further assessment in 12 months’ time

·       I recommend refresher training to help lower the risk of collision

https://www.hants.gov.uk/transport/roadsafety/drivertraining/driverskills

May I commend it to you very warmly and, if you are not over 60 but have family or friends who are, feel free to pass the information to them.  It costs £65 and in my view is money well spent.

Beach clean Thursday 21 May

A beach clean is being carried at Lee on the Solent and Hill Head from 09.00 to 13.00 on Thursday 21 May and we are all encouraged to join. I know many of us try to keep ‘our’ local area of the beach as clean as possible, but there are areas that are certainly in need of improvement.  The person organising it is Henry Barker and it is an ONS (Office for National Statistics) volunteer day.  Henry will be providing litter pickers and bags though if you have your own litter picker, it would be worth taking it.

The muster point is Salterns car park at 09.00 though of course you can join in later if you are involved in school run or other activities first thing.  Do contact Henry direct if you have any queries: henry.barker@ons.gov.uk

Daedalus Waterfront Update

You may remember the very interesting meeting we had in September 2023 when we heard from Honor Fishburn about the plans for the redevelopment of Daedalus Waterfront.  Since then, many planning applications have been approved by Gosport Borough Council and attached is the recent announcement of the considerable progress which is being made.

Daedalus Update.docx

Download DOCX • 15KB

Text frauds

Copied below is a warning from Hampshire Alert about a recent text fraud. May I again encourage you to sign up to Hampshire Alert – it is very good at putting out these timely warnings.

You will receive a text stating your bank/credit card has been added to an APPLE PAY wallet and asks you to phone a number to verify your identity.  This is a form of phishing (smishing) text to gather your personal/financial information in order to defraud you further.

APPLE state they do not call or text to warn you of issues, they will not text you and ask you to call a number, and they will never ask for codes, passwords or PINs, they will never email or message you with links or ask you to download software.

If you receive this type of message, please ignore it and do not respond.  You can forward it to 7726 if possible, or your phone provider may offer you the option to report it to them, then block the sender and delete the message.

Please do share this important update with friends and family and encourage them to sign up for their own Hampshire Alert: https://www.hampshirealert.co.uk/ 

Solent Cliffs Nursing Home extension P/24/1672/FP

Those living near, or using Old Street will have seen that last month work started on the extension of Solent Cliffs Nursing Home.  HHRA drew the planning officer’s attention to the fact that no construction management plan had been submitted, which was a condition of planning consent.  The planning officer followed this up with the agent and work stopped.  The construction management plan has now been submitted and may be viewed online, but there is now an objection from the ecology specialist, expressing concerns about lighting, badgers and bats. Note to agent: in Hill Head, it is wise to get your ducks (and other wildlife) in a row before embarking on a project….