Portsmouth City Council purchases houses that are already occupied. In so doing, they become responsible for the management and maintenance of 747 properties.
Has anyone asked why Clarion was getting rid of these properties?
Equally puzzling, to me, is why Portsmouth City Council wants to responsible for housing and tenants spread throughout Hampshire.
The majority of the new buildings are in Portsmouth, with others situated in Gosport, Havant, Fareham and Winchester.
How does this help with the existing shortfall of available properties to house those who are already on the local waiting list for social housing ?
Wouldn’t the money have been better spent on new build properties, which would be empty and could, therefore, have a direct impact on the waiting lists.
We are the Wrinklies. A small group of friends and their partners, who, at one time or another, worked together and are all retirees.
Today was the first of, I hope, many social lunches in 2024. It was certainly our first gathering since before Christmas due to most, if not all, of us contracting some kind of flu, which basically knocked us out of commission, in some cases for weeks.
The selected venue for our inaugural gathering was The Ferryboat Inn, situated on the easterly tip of Hayling Island.
I have been visiting this pub for over fifty years. My first visit was while I was an apprentice in Portsmouth Dockyard. Many subsequent visits were made on my return from boat fishing trips, disembarking at the nearby jetty. And then there are these purely social gatherings.
So it was not our first time at this pub, but it has been a while, certainly pre-covid.
There were seven of us in our group and all enjoyed their meals with the exception of me.
My wife had the Hunters Chicken, while Eric had Steak and Venison Pie, Mary had Scampi while the remaining four had Fish n Chips.
As I said earlier, all the others enjoyed their meals, with at least one declaring “best fish n chips ever”.
Unfortunately, my meal was sub standard. The batter was ultra crisp, just shattering when I cut into my fillet, the batter would not stay with the fish. And the fish, instead of being flaky and moist was dry.
So, I drew the short straw.
I didn’t complain as I didn’t want a replacement meal, meaning I would be eating when everyone else was finished. And it wasn’t inedible.
Will I go back ?
Yes. I never write a place off on the basis of a single meal.
One other negative comment. I ordered bread and butter to go with my meal, having noted that they were going to charge £1 per slice. There was I thinking it would be a nice crusty bread, maybe granary, ciabatta or something special. Nope, two slices of slightly dry sandwich bread from a loaf that probably cost £1.50 That’s not a bad profit.
I’ll end this on a positive note. The apple and ginger crumble dessert served with a jug of custard was lovely.
Overall, a very pleasant couple of hours were spent with friends in a great location. Had the winds been a little quieter and the temperatures a bit higher, we might have been tempted to go for a walk along the shoreline.
Looking forward to the next Wrinklies gathering and discovering the next venue.
My experience with items ordered via Amazon has, until now, been faultless.
A few days ago, I ordered two T-shirts with a scheduled delivery of some time on Friday.
The due date arrived, as did an email confirming the imminent delivery. In the email was a tracking link, which I selected.
Up popped a map showing the delivery van was less than a mile away and that I was the 3rd delivery. And, a few minutes later, it showed that I was next, so I prepared myself to go answer the door.
Time passed, no sign of the driver. It was gone eight in the evening, so dark outside. We have a hedge that blocks our view of the driveway, but I could see the van headlights. I could hear the thumps as doors were opened and closed. Then, through the trees, I spotted a van driving away.
I checked the app, and much to my surprise, it indicated that my goods had been delivered. It further stated that my goods had been stuffed through my letterbox.
How could that be ?
As I said, it was dark outside, but anyone coming to my door would have triggered my Ring doorbell/camera and also the sensor controlled floodlight. No such trigger occurred.
I checked with my immediate neighbours but nobody had erroneously received my delivery.
So I contacted Amazon, thinking they could contact the driver, and as it had only been a few minutes, he would still be in the area.
Apparently, once the driver leaves the depot, there is no way to contact them !!!
The guy I was talking to was very good and he raised a complaint for me. Arranged a refund for the goods and sent me a confirmation email.
However, that is hardly the point. I actually wanted the T-shirts. I had wasted my time, and his.
It’s been two days now, so I would hope that if he had actually delivered my goods a bit further afield, then the recipient would have walked them round to my house.
The driver is either very lazy or a thief.
This is the first time I have had any issues with Amazon and I hope it’s the last.
Just a short while ago, I posted about attending my ex son-in-laws funeral.
And just this week, we attended another. This time, for a friend and colleague of my wife’s, from her days working at the Kenwood site in Havant.
Two funerals in quick succession, a dark start to 2024, had me thinking that, given my age, I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, I will be 72 this year, God willing.
But that’s not right. Yes, as we get older, we start to say goodbye to others in our age group however, neither Dave nor Ali are in my age group. Dave was 56 while Ali was not yet 55. Too young by any measure, showing that cancer does not respect age.
RIP Ali, my condolences to Martin and Cameron.
Alison “Ali” Davis 12th August 1969 – 20th January 2024
With its unique location, virtually on the beach, and magnificent views.
Overlooking the busy Solent with its everchanging maritime views the Osborne View was the ideal location to sit and absorb the action. Watching people on the beach, the ships, or the myriad sailing boats. Never boring.
Over many years, this pub was the venue for evening meals, lunches, and just for drinks with friends and family.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I am embarrassed for our Royal Navy. Especially for those currently deployed aboard the aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales .
HMS Queen Elizabeth
My perception may be wrong, but it seems to me that these carriers have spent more time in port than they have at sea since their initial launch in 2014 and 2017 respectively.
Just 18 months ago, HMS Prince of Wales broke down off the Isle of Wight. A fault with a propeller shaft coupling took nine months to resolve.
HMS Prince of Wales
HMS Queen Elizabeth was due to participate in a major naval exercise, but the February 4th sailing, from Portsmouth,was cancelled due to a mechanical fault discovered during pre-sailing checks. This new fault is said to be propeller shaft based but not related to HMS Prince of Wales’ earlier problem.
So HMS Prince of Wales was scheduled to replace her sister ship and set sail on February 11th. At the last minute, this sailing was cancelled. The MOD has not divulged the reason for the delay, but HMS Prince of Wales did, in fact, set sail yesterday, 12th February.
There must be many red faces in both the Admiralty and the MOD.
HMS Prince of Wales cost around £3.2bn and does not appear to be good value for money. The Admiralty, MOD, British Government should be pursuing Babcocks, the ship builders, for a refund or some form of compensation.
It is not acceptable that the British taxpayer should fund these repairs. If Babcock have supplied substandard quality product then they should be held liable.
The government needs to get a grip before the RN and the UK become a total laughing stock.
It’s no wonder MP Flick Drummond has been criticised.
She has suggested that Jo and Joanna Public should stop flushing the loo, taking a bath, or using their washing machines during times of heavy rain.
Her ridiculous comments are just taking the focus away from the real issue, which is that the water companies are doing very little to prevent the discharge of sewage into our rivers and coastal waters.
Since the start of 2024, there have been 23 confirmed occasions of sewage being released into the Langstone Harbour area.
23 occasions in less than two months. What this shows is that fining the water companies isn’t working.
In 2021, Southern Water was fined £90m for deliberately dumping billions of litres of raw sewage into protected seas over several years for its own financial gain.
Just last year, 2023, Southern Water was instructed to return £43 million to customers by reducing bills for 2024.
And rubbing salt into public wounds, the water companies paid out £65.9bn in dividends to shareholders in the years up to 2022.
So somewhere between paying fines and paying dividends are the huge profits they are making, enabling them to pay huge salaries to their management.
Ian McAulay, CEO for Souther Water, was apparently paid a bonus of £550,900 in 2020/21. This is in addition to a £435,000-a-year salary and with pension payments and benefits secured a £1.082m pay package.
It’s time that these company execs were hit in their personal pockets. Then, maybe, they would feel inclined to take positive action.
So Flick Drummond, perhaps instead of blaming the public, you could target the true people responsible, the water companies, and their execs.
Perhaps you could also look at the decision-making of the planners, which surrounds the many developments in this area and apply pressure to ensure that the sewage infrastructure is set in place BEFORE building starts.
The public voted you into your position to speak on their behalf. They can easily vote you out.
However, there is a distinct lack of consistency with how local authorities deal with school absence.
Due to a change in personal circumstances, my granddaughter has been trying, for a couple of months, to find a school placement for her daughter. She phones the authorities frequently but is told that there are no places available.
How can one set of parents be fined for “temporarily” removing their child from school whilst the local authorities fail to find a placement for my great granddaughter and face no punishment. I thought it was a legal requirement that children had to go to school.
Doesn’t that same law hold the local authorities liable for the provision of that schooling ?
If my granddaughter had chosen to keep her daughter away from school, they would have fined her.
WrAnTz 