A quick update, primarily to provide a reminder about our meeting next Monday 4 November at the catholic church hall, Bell’s Lane, 7.30pm. Fiona Gray will present an update about the Welborne development and our councillors will provide any news about planning matters and other current issues at FBC and HCC.
Water Matters. Coverage of water matters continues unabated in the national press and you may have seen the press item with the unwelcome news that Southern Water leads the pack when it comes to price increases, with the prospect of an over 40% increase over the next five years.
We have in the past (18 June and 9 July Updates) drawn attention to consultations taking place, in particular concerning the new Thicket reservoir at Rowlands Castle with the proposal for effluent recycling. A further consultation is underway until 4 December and can be found at https://www.southernwater.co.uk/latest-news/creating-a-resilient-water-future-for-our-region/. If you have an interest in this, you may also wish to look at the Havant Matters website and the extensive comments thereon: https://havantmatters.org/
On sea water quality, it may be helpful if I provide again the link that was in the 2 September Update: Many members follow Beachbuoy or Surfers Against Sewage to check sea water quality. May we also recommend https://environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles/ Enter Hill Head in the location box and you will see detailed information up to and including this year. Hill Head is shown with a clean bill of health for 2024. It is of course based on a once a week sample (taken from near Salterns car park) rather than ‘real time’ reporting, but it does add to the information available.
Scams. We are warned that, with extra spending as Christmas approaches, we should be especially wary about fraudsters. This includes those ringing you saying they are from police, HMRC, the fraud department of your bank or credit card provider. Do not take it at face value, but ring off and ring a trusted number (eg on the back of your bank or credit card) to check. Others currently doing the rounds include Spotify – your payment didn’t go through successfully, do try again via this link.
Road closures. As you will know, many road and rail closures take place over Christmas and an important one for us locally involves junctions 9 and 11 in Christmas week as work progresses to achieve all way access for junction 10, which is an essential requirement for Welborne: https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/24671096.welborne-m27-junction-10-close-christmas-2025/
Bin collections over Christmas. You may have seen the details of bin collections over Christmas and New Year in Fareham Matters, but in case it is helpful, a copy is attached.
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