Liveability Meeting Presents Benefits to Islanders.

- Wed 27th Apr 2005

On Thursday 21st April, HIRA held its public meeting to explain the Liveability programme benefits to Islanders.
This was scheduled in 2004 as being the time by which most decisions on the programme should have been made.
The timing was right as on the 18th a meeting was held to review the proposed Eastoke Corner schemes
(for which £0.5M has been allocated) and the Langstone Corridor scheme (for which £250K has been allocated),
which includes the Hayling side of the bridge.

Some 40 people attended the meeting on the 18th and considerable consensus seemed to be reached on both projects.
Our meeting on the 21st was opened by our chairman, Paul Fisher, who introduced Jo Penney.
She is the Liveability Manager employed by Havant Borough and she described the process by which the
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister had allocated £3.75M (£3.35m for capital projects and a further
£400,000 for service reforms) to Havant for enhancements to the open spaces within the Borough.

From the Borough point of view this is aimed at better management of the streets and open spaces
with particular emphasis on keeping them clean and improving their appearance.
At present cleaning is the responsibility of the current owner of land. Thus HCC cleans some of the roads
while HBC cleans others.
Private owners have responsibility for their frontages and Portsmouth Water is responsible for yet more.

Under the new scheme HBC will take responsibility for all open space and roadside areas and provide
a more uniform approach to the problem.

A further aim will be to improve road and other signage.
While HBC will have a common approach to this, each sub-area (Hayling, Leigh Park, Emsworth etc.)
will also have its local logo, in the case of Hayling being the four keys of Jumieges, seen frequently in Island logos.

Jo them described the capital projects for Hayling.
As noted, the main programme covers Eastoke Corner and Beachlands.
The Langstone corridor element will include the area by the Texaco garage together with associated artwork.
The smaller projects, agreed locally are; lights for the games enclosure in Hayling Park,
a grant towards the cost of developing the football area in the Hayling School
(sorry College, what is Havant College going to call itself to raise its status?),
green gyms on the beach, a grant towards making the car park at Northney village hall more suitable for disabled use,
CCTV at the Mengham Park sports centre, extension of the skate-park and a major programme
to extend the use of Hayling footpaths by improving them and providing better information about them.
On this last item, Dave Shepherd has carried out a comprehensive survey and submitted a substantial
report to the Community Board to support the programme.

Jo Penney finally announced that a detailed plan for the Langstone scheme will be shown in
Langstone on the 245h/25th May and the Eastoke Corner scheme in June on a date yet to be announced.

After the presentation further discussion took place with general agreement on the projects.
The major concern expressed was on the timescales as all programmes have to be completed by March 2006.

This topic is also reported elsewhere, probably in more detail.

Excrescences on the landscape.

Every so often things happen and one wonders how they came to be agreed and implemented.
At least two such have recently occurred. On walking past the oyster beds
I came across a common or garden bus shelter placed beside the saline lagoon.
It is an absolute eyesore and completely out of place. It is presumably to provide shelter for visitors.
However it faces straight into the prevailing wind so what kind of shelter it is supposed to
provide is difficult to determine. Needless to say it has already been vandalised.
If a shelter is felt to be needed, at least provide one that is in keeping with the area and actually of some use.

A number of people have commented on the yellow posts that have taken root at various road junctions on the Island.
One assumes they have something to do with safety.
Again they seem completely out of place and indicate a complete lack of understanding of what the
Liveability programme is trying to achieve, i.e. a more attractive outdoor environment.
As they are no more visible at night than normal bollards, why do they have to be so obtrusive in daylight.

This brings me to the general topic of posts.
Every time the Council want a new notice it seems to demand a new post.
While surveying the Eastoke Corner options I became aware of the number of notices and the fact that each has a
separate post.
There are even separate posts for the notices saying you are leaving the blue flag beach as well as for the
notices saying you have arrived at the blue flag beach.
Surely someone has enough civic pride and consciousness to try and co-ordinate these.
At the Windsurfing area on the west beach there are some sixteen posts for the notices and other
information items in addition to a row of violent blue bins, another eyesore. On the matter of colour,
there is a story that when the council selected the colour for the industrial buildings behind the theatre
it was as a result of very careful consideration by the great and the good of the council,
with results that have jarred ever since.
A case of better decision making is clearly needed on matters such as these.

Stamping down on Crime.

When I first received the April Hayling Islander, I did not read the main item on the front page.
Later I felt I should so that I could understand what was being proposed in this area.
Some years ago (about 7?) HIRA held a meeting with the current person in charge of Hayling
who gave us the following figures. Hayling was then allocated 21 police members responsible for our protection.
There were 3 specials, 3 CID, 2 sergeants and 13 constables, if I remember correctly.
Compare that with now where we have half those numbers in spite of the claims to have far more Police employed.

I then read the article that I had earlier passed over.
It told me that crime was bad and affected people.
It told me we would continue the community approach.
It told me it would target certain types of crime and it told me that it would develop a clear route forward for community safety.
Unfortunately it said nothing about how any of these were to be achieved.
It did not tell me why very few calls are responded to quickly even though we keep being told 60% of policeman
are in the office doing paperwork and hence available for immediate response (how long does it take to press control/save and put your hat on?).
On this last point it is a mystery why this reporting problem arises. With modern technology 1 entry can be made and automatically inserted in all the relevant sections of the crime database and the process should be simple, not complicated. If this is not the case it points to some major failure in the management structure and process.

Finally, last month's article does not tell us why the police cannot operate the type of service provided by
the Fire Service, RNLI, Ambulance Service and First Responders, i.e. respond without asking whether the fire is big enough, sufficient people are drowning etc. What is wrong with the concept of retained local Policemen, on rota call as in the case of the Fire Service, who will virtually always respond.
On their own, they do not necessarily have to solve the problem, but sometimes merely assess and call
for support if needed.
Incidentally, at the last budget meeting, the Hampshire Chief Constable told us that Community Support Officers cost more than real Policemen so what is the point of having them?

While I fully understand that the Police have major problems associated with terrorism,
solving of major crimes, dealing with horrendous traffic accidents etc. From the point of view of the general public the low level instant response would do far more to allay public anxiety and, as a result, engenderer major co-operation which could well provide the inputs to help solve some of their more important problems.

Have a good summer as I wished you last month!

Tony Higham.

Main contacts:

Chairman: Paul Fisher 92461412

Membership: Shirley Adams 92462881

Notice Board: Lois Neale 92469339

Reporter: Tony Higham 92464723.

By forum user, HIbot