Congratulations to my grandson on achieving his first byline for The Independent.
Well done Josh
Month: December 2012
Blown Away
As many of you know Radio Paradise is my station of choice to listen to when I am working. However, just once in a while it has an adverse effect and stops me from working. Well we just had one of those moments. Had to kick back, turn up the volume and close my eyes ….. They played the following tracks in succession…
Sonny Landreth – Congo Square
Stevie Ray Vaughn – Pipeline
Not the version played on RP but this is a great clip to watch.
California Guitar Trio – The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Again, not the version played by RP but well worth watching as an intro to these guys.
‘Something has to be done on this dangerous road’
Last Wednesday Raymond Elsmore, 82, suffered fatal injuries when he was hit by a car near the junction of Tempest Avenue and Cornelius Drive at about 3.05pm. Raymond was a well loved lollipop man, well known to the local community.
Mr Elsmore was on duty at the time and wearing his reflective uniform. The driver of the car, a 21-year-old female, was uninjured and was arrested at the scene on suspicion of causing death by careless driving.
I don’t know what the conditions were like when Raymond lost his life, nor do I know which direction the car that took his life was traveling. But it is possible that the low height of the sun could have been a contributing factor.
On Sunday afternoon, around 3 o’clock, I was traveling along Tempest Avenue coming from the Tesco’s store, heading towards the spot where all the flowers are laid. The sun was very low in the sky and directly in front of me i.e. appearing right in the middle of the road and I really couldn’t see the road ahead clearly. What I could just make out was a police car stopped in the road with its lights flashing. On the grass there was a policeman apparently taking photo’s of the police car. I started to indicate to pull round the police car and only at the last moment did I see that there was a police woman, in full reflective jacket, stood in the road with her hand up requesting me to stop. My point is that, even though I wasn’t traveling very fast, without the police cars lights I would not have been alerted to the possibility of someone being in the road.
Quite rightly there is a rising call for the council to make this road safer. They obviously saw the need for a lollipop man perhaps with Mr Elsmore’s tagic death they will seriously consider adding some traffic calming measures. This road is a rat run at all times of the day but becomes more so during the evening and morning commuter times.
Mr Elsmore’s death is a tragedy and my thoughts are with his family and friends.
Local residents have also created a website
‘Something has to be done on this dangerous road’ – Travel Latest – Portsmouth News.
Nancy really does hit the nail, firmly, on the head. I have been getting more and more frustrated by the feeding frenzy that is the media and their coverage of this tragic loss of life. I too feel for the family of Jacinta Saldhana and I too, feel for the two DJ’s who could not possibly have foreseen their prank leading to the death of this nurse. Many pranks carried out in all innocence could inadvertently lead to dire results. How many of us have sat and watched and laughed at the pranks performed on Candid Camera over the years. More recently there has been the “Elevator” prank perpetrated by the Brazilian TV Show. If ever there was the possibility of a tragic ending then that prank was a prime candidate. Yet, until now, we all would happily laugh at the discomfort of others, a bit of schadenfreude. How quickly we climb on our high horse and decry the actions of these two DJ’s. If it wasn’t for the publics appetite for this kind of entertainment they would not have initiated this prank.
What a sad world we live in.
All I can see on TV and hear on my radio at the moment is news about the tragic death of Jacintha Saldanha, the vilification of two, reasonably funny, radio DJ’s and the cooing over King Edward VII Hospital.
Firstly – before I transcend into a long over due Not Now Nancy rant I would like to say this. My heart BLEEDS for the family of Jacintha. Her children, her husband and other family. To lose someone so young is such a tragedy but to lose someone at this time of year, even more so.
It is of course no wonder that they are looking for someone to blame and, in the same circumstances, perhaps I would be aiming my guns in the same direction. But it is important in a situation like this to remember the facts.
The media. The good old British…
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Who Put The Fairy On The Tree ?
Pilobolus Dance Theatre “Shadowland” …
Yes, Wow indeed. Definitely one to share.
Cowards !!!
What is this country coming too ?
There are mindless thugs out there who don’t think twice before attacking the elderly, the frail and the disabled
It makes me ashamed to think that there are such cowardly people walking the streets of this country, makes me ashamed to be English.
The News has recently reported this attack on a partially sighted man from Fareham.
Richard Twose, who is partially blind, was walking Bates near his home on Redlands Lane, Fareham, when he heard the dog yelp out in pain.
The 35-year-old told The News: ‘I’d been in the house all day so I felt guilty that I hadn’t walked Bates.
‘I decided to take him out for walk. That’s when I heard him yelp in pain.
‘I turned around and a split second later I was pushed into the fence and kicked in the stomach.’
There is no way that Richards attackers didn’t know that their victim was blind and the fact that they attacked his guide dog first says a lot about their mentality.
Someone out their knows who these cretins are. Do the right thing and hand them over to the police
Police are appealing for witnesses. If you can help, call PC John Cupper on 101.
Man and his guide dog beaten up in vicious unprovoked attack – Local – Portsmouth News.
Still on the subject of cowardly attacks, recently a man riding his mobility scooter was attacked …..
Thugs tried to rob a man riding a mobility scooter. The gang struck in Waterlooville, with one of the attackers brandishing a knife at the 61-year-old victim. But the disabled man punched the youth in the face before riding away to make his escape. The incident happened just before 4pm on Wednesday, November 21 at the junction of Mill Road and Novello Gardens.
Police said anyone with any information is asked to contact Det Con Smithers at Waterlooville Police Station on 101 or call the charity Crimestoppers line on 0800 555 111 where information can be left anonymously.
I would never advocate vigilantism but a part of me hopes that the attackers of these two victims are identified, and that they get their just deserts. I say this because my fear is that the punishment that they will receive at the hands of the courts will never match the hurt and trauma meted out to their victims.
Pilots
Love it.
Presenting the steering wheel of Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull Racing RB8
Gosh. I thought I had it tough trying to cope with my Renault Megane steering wheel and stalk controls. Just, the speed limiter/cruise control options on the wheel supplemented by the phone/entertainment controls on the stalk. Oh and then there is the satnav controls adjacent to the manual gearstick (just the six).
Button Functions
✿ DIF → Adjust the behaviour of the differential
✿ N → Puts gearbox into neutral
✿ RADIO → Push to talk to the team
✿ X → Sets a marker in the telemetry to indicate a problem is encountered
✿ DRINK → Push to drink
✿ DEFAULT → Reset certain settings to their original values
✿ TYRE → Driver adjust this knob to tell the team about the tires and adjust electronics to suit different tires
✿ KERS → Select KERS settings
✿ CLUTCH → Select clutch adjustment
✿ MIX → Change engine’s mixture settings
✿ FW. EN → Tells the team if there’s a need to change front flaps angle
✿ REV → Allow more engine revs to pass another car
✿ OIL → Activates supplementary oil tank for engine
✿ OK → Driver acknowledge if radio does not work
✿ FAIL → Command all systems…
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When Are We Going To Get Our Local Shops Back ?
On Saturday 16th September, 2011 our local Tesco Express was burnt out. Along with the Tesco store we also lost our pharmacy and a Chinese take-away.
The News reported Thursday 29 March, 2012 that ….
Officials at Brookton 2000 Ltd, which owns the site, said they were working up a planning application for the rebuild of Tesco and the pharmacy.
Daniel Kaye, director of Brookton 2000 Ltd, based in Chandler’s Ford, said: ‘We have a team of professionals appointed and we are working on submitting an application. Then it is in the hands of the local authority.
‘Once we get planning permission, we can look to appoint contractors.
‘Unfortunately these things take longer than members of the general public think.’
Mr Kaye said the shops would be back open in 18 months’ time at the very latest. But he said he hoped the rebuild would be sooner.
On April 8th of this year I posted about how long it was taking for any work to begin to replace the afore-mentioned business premises.
Fifteen months have gone by since the fire and nothing seems to have happened on the site.
The photo above shows that the roof has gone from the pharmacy and supermarket areas. The blue tarp covers some part of the chinese take-away roof where the fire brigade broke through, presumably to ensure that the fire wasn’t still burning out of sight.
Planning application has indeed been made to the council and has been approved. See APP/12/00650
The approval of the application, on 21st August, comes with some conditions.
1) The development hereby permitted shall be begun before the expiration of 3 years from the date on which this planning permission was granted.Reason: To comply with Section 51 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.
So we could be waiting some time before the rebuild gets started. It would have been better from a residents perspective if the council had enforced a more stringent timetable.
3) No development hereby permitted shall be commenced until a detailed soft landscaping scheme for all open parts of the site not proposed to be hard-surfaced has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. Such scheme shall specify the proposed finished ground levels in relation to the existing levels, the distribution and species of ground cover to be planted, the positions, species and planting sizes of the trees and shrubs to be planted and/or retained, and timing provisions for completion of the implementation of all such landscaping works.
The implementation of all such approved landscaping shall be completed in full accordance with such approved timing provisions. Any tree or shrub planted or retained as part of such approved landscaping scheme which dies or is otherwise removed within the first 5 years shall be replaced with another of the same species and size in the same position during the first available planting season.
Reason: To ensure the appearance of the development is satisfactory and having due regard to policies CS11, CS16 and DM8 of the Havant Borough Core Strategy 2011 which form part of the Local Development Framework and National Planning Policy Framework, March 2012.
It’s good to see that work cannot commence until the really important issues have been thrashed out. I would have thought it was more important to get a major part of the local infrastructure reinstated i.e. rebuild and reopen the stores, rather than argue over the type of shrubs to be planted.
4) The buildings shall not be occupied until space for the loading, unloading and parking of vehicles has been provided within the site, surfaced and marked out in accordance with the approved details. Such areas shall thereafter be permanently retained and used solely for those purposes.
Reason: In the interests of highway safety and having due regard to policy DM13 of the Havant Borough Core Strategy 2011 which forms part of the Local Development Framework and National Planning Policy Framework, March 2012.
This condition has me confused. The original goods entrance and specifically the area immediately in front of it appears, according to the proposed ground floor plan, to be allocated as disabled parking. If this is for the “sole” use of the disabled, where will goods vehicles load and unload ?
According to the plans there will be a new construction and entrance at the northern end of the building, immediately adjacent to Lavender Road. If that is intended to be used as the main goods entrance into the building, implying that the goods vehicles are to be parked in Lavender Road, we will have a road safety disaster on our hands. The parking of articulated lorries in this area of the road has already caused several near misses to my knowledge.
I would have preferred to have seen some provision for goods vehicle access or at the very minimum a restriction placed on the supermarket operator to only use small to medium-sized vans for the delivery of stock. It isn’t only Tesco vehicles in the past that have caused problems as I have seen articulated lorries delivering milk and bread to this site.
So, when are we going to get our local shops back ?
The pharmacy has been trying to maintain its presence by operating out of a converted industrial container. Word from the container has it that they will be returning to a proper shop around Easter 2013.
Mr Daniel Kay, that’s 20 months. not “18 months at the latest” ….. nor is it “sooner”
Some of the folks who used to work at the burnt out Tesco Express have been redeployed to Tesco’s Grassmere Way Store. Or maybe that’s Tempest Road. Not sure since Tesco can’t seem to make up their own mind according to their own web site. As we locals know Tempest Road is actually Tempest Avenue. But I digress.
Having spoken to some of the Lavender Road expats it seems that they have not heard anything about Tesco resuming operations.
Is this because Tescos will not be coming back ? If not, then who will be operating from the rebuilt store and when ?
By the way, going back to the Tesco website, they don’t seem to have noticed that their store is no longer open. They still show the Lavender Road store as being open seven days a week.
When Are We Going To Get Our Local Shops Back ?
WrAnTz 