Development Benefits – Really


The residents of Sarisbury Green have my sympathy.

The planners are doing it again. Selling the “benefits” of a new development assuming that the locals are gullible enough to be distracted from the reality.

Miller Homes and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) have submitted plans to Fareham Borough Council to build 168 homes and 40 sheltered housing units on the old Coldeast Hospital site in Sarisbury Green.

The plans also include the restoration and extension of the existing Mansion House, which would become a hotel, and a project for Brook Lane Lodge to become a house again.

A swimming pool, sports pitches, a cemetery, allotments and a new community building with changing facilities also form part of the plans.

Anyone who travels through this area on a regular basis will know that the traffic levels are already horrendous. The local roads feed the A27 which in turn feed two major junctions of the M27. Junction 9 to the East with the notorious Segensworth / Whitely road network and Junction 8 to the West.

Rachel Allinson of the Coldeast Action Group, appears to be resigned to the development.

‘We don’t believe that we can stop it. Our view now is to minimise the impact that it will have and try and make it as few dwellings as possible and make sure that there is adequate green space.’

Well I wish you good luck with that. The powers that be seem to be hell-bent on covering every last bit of green in the south of England. The “Western Wards” has been in the spotlight for many years. Solent City just keeps creeping closer and closer.

The council, typically, are viewing this development through the obligatory rose-tinted planning goggles.

Councillor Sean Woodward, leader of the council, said: ‘Overall, there is tremendous support for the community benefits. We have been working to achieve this for the past 20 years.

‘Without doubt there will have to be some amendments to the housing side. There is understandable concern in terms of the impact on traffic, schools and doctors.’

Those rose-tinted goggles obviously come with special ear plugs which prevent the wearer from hearing any dissenting comments.

The traffic is going to be horrendous, as it is already – Politics – Portsmouth News.

Royal Mail driver is caught parking in disabled spot in Crookhorn


Well it’s the Royal Mail that are caught and getting the public flogging but the problem is much deeper.

Since our local Tesco Express was burnt down my wife and I tend to use these shops on a regular basis and I have often observed the “couldn’t care less” attitude of so many drivers. It’s not just the Royal Mail drivers but “white van man”, “joe public” and also the “yoof of today” that quite unashamedly park in the disabled parking bays or just in the designated turning spaces. They will use the disable spaces even when there are other spaces available just to save themselves a few extra feet of walking. Never a thought for the disabled users.

Of course the problem has been exacerbated by the demise of the Tesco Express which has caused a lot more people to be using the Purbrook Chase Precinct and as we have recently heard, that situation will be ongoing for at least another 18 months.

I’d say that the mail mans actions are just a reflection of society today.

Royal Mail driver is caught parking in disabled spot in Crookhorn – Local Business – Portsmouth News.

Cheers all round as council vows to protect old Denmead pub


Yes indeed, Cheers All Round

I for one am glad that the council has seen sense and put a stop to the destruction of this fine old pub. It would have been a travesty if it had been replaced by the two planned houses.

Well done to the council. Lets hope that someone with vision can take over the running of the pub.

With all the new housing developments going on in the surrounding area there should be enough customers to keep it going.

Cheers all round as council vows to protect old Denmead pub – Politics – Portsmouth News.

Headteacher in Forest of Dean vows to shop parents over pupils web use, including social networking


Paul Woodward is to be applauded. His is a voice in the wilderness.

A primary school head has threatened to shop parents to social services if they allow his pupils to use Facebook and other networking sites.

Paul Woodward is concerned that youngsters who use the sites risk being exposed to porn and online grooming.

He has warned parents that persistently letting children flout Facebook’s 13-plus age rule could warrant investigation by child protection teams.

He estimates that at least 60 per cent of the 270-plus children at his school in the Forest of Dean have access to social networking sites.

Reporting parents to social services is, on the face of it, a bit extreme. However, where the parents have been informed and they take no action then I think he is justified.

Mr Woodward, a branch secretary for the National Association of Head Teachers, the country’s biggest heads’ union, yesterday demanded a ban on children setting up social media accounts – because of the risk of accessing inappropriate material.

Unfortunately a ban would be a waste of time. How on earth could this be policed. The only way to stop the underaged from gaining access is to enforce some kind of  control based round a credit card or some other kind of ID that can be validated on line.I believe that Facebook themselves would not want to do this unless they could actually charge a nominal fee for the  for the privilege.
Of course there will always be the kid that steals, sorry, borrows his parents card to bypass these controls.Just take a look at how six-year-old  Jake Sadler ran up a bill totalling nearly £1,000 while playing a game on his parents’ iPad.
Then there are the parents who are either too stupid to recognise the risks or choose to give in to their kids pestering for a quiet life.
Mr Woodward should also be a tad cautious before tagging parents as persistent offenders.
There are many kids out there who routinely create more than one facebook account. There is the one they keep for parents and family access. Strange that they don’t seem to access this account from one week to the next and they only have a few “friends”. Strange that their mobile is constantly pinging and buzzing as they chat with their “friends”. I have first hand experience of this having stumbled on my granddaughters facebook presence on which she has over 2500 “friends”. This is despite the fact that she has been on the receiving end of the dark side of Facebook and claimed to have ditched her Facebook account. Her public, to the family, Facebook account only has a few hundred “friends”.

Many parents lack awareness of the potential dangers to children from the variety of links and ‘apps’ that can be accessed through Facebook and other sites, he warned.

As soon as his school becomes aware a child has a Facebook account it contacts the company to get the profile blocked.

Now this is an action which I think deserves more support. I wonder how quickly the likes of Facebook are at shutting down these accounts. In the past they have been somewhat reticent.
Many of the comments received for this article on the MailOnline website have derided Woodward’s stance.

This is too far. He is a head teacher and should stick to teaching not snooping. I thought we wanted an end to big government and its snooping or is only when it serves us that we agree with it.

This is not snooping. This is trying to protect our children.
When I was a pupil my parents had an expectation that the school, to which they had entrusted me  for five days of the week, would provide me with the same protection that they did for the rest of the week. Nowadays there is an apparent expectation that teachers are only there to teach the subject matter.

Maybe he should concentrate on teaching rather than parenting! Interesting how DM have two opposing articles written from the same perspective.. Anyway, if he cares about children being exposed to the horrors of Facebook why not do that old-fashioned thing and TEACH about the dangers rather than sit in some sort of arrogant pious judgement of others.

Teach them about the dangers, that’s a laugh. Our schools are doing such a grand job of teaching about the dangers of drugs, getting pregnant and so forth lets put the responsibility on them to teach about the dangers of the Facebook and the internet.
I’m not criticizing the schools. I think they have an impossible task and they don’t get the support of the parents.
No I think that Mr Woodward has the right approach. Keep on shopping the underage kids to Facebook. Keep on warning the parents.
Ultimately it’s the parents responsibility but when they don’t step up to the mark then thank god for people like Paul Woodward.

Headteacher in Forest of Dean vows to shop parents over pupils¿ web use, including social networking | Mail Online.

Five and a half years is not enough !!!


Two young women were crossing Stoke Road after enjoying an evening in a pub, when Matthew Styler drove his car into them.

Daniel Riley, defending, told the court Styler, who was wounded on a tour of Afghanistan in 2010, had expressed remorse for what he had done and said he had been since diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.

But

Sentencing, Judge Sarah Munro said: ‘It was nothing to do with post traumatic stress that let you to get into the driving seat.

‘You were so drunk you couldn’t see what was outside the windscreen of your car.

I think that the sentence is too lenient. Styler wasn’t so drunk that he didn’t know what he had done. He knew enough to try to cover his tracks. After the incident he tried to destroy the evidence and change his appearance.

He drove the car into a secluded wooded area four miles away from the incident and set fire to it in an attempt to destroy the evidence.

The 36-year-old washed his clothes, as well as boots and sunglasses, and shaved off his beard to cover-up the crime.

Five and a half years is not enough !!!

Gosport man jailed for ploughing car into friends – Local – Portsmouth News.

Ducks


I’ve been messing with some old photo’s. Just experimenting with the digital tools on my puter. I quite like the effects so I thought I would share.

I believe these two pretty birds posed for me at the WWT Arundel Wetland Centre back in 2009.

Waterlooville Wally Of The Week Award


A few posts ago I introduced the Waterlooville Wally Of The Week Award

Well I have a new candidate, Bradley Woodacre.

Woodacre, of Boxwood Close, Waterlooville, who has a string of previous convictions for driving offences, later admitted dangerous driving and driving while disqualified and without insurance

So he drives while disqualified and obviously that means no insurance but he doesn’t have the brain cells to drive quietly. No he drives like a total twat and then wrecks the car.

Father-to-be Bradley Woodacre was driving a Volkswagen Golf while disqualified when he narrowly avoided hitting a 13-year-old boy on a bike and a Peugeot 307.

Woodacre then lost control of the car, which a witness claimed was travelling at up to 70mph in a 30mph zone in Park Avenue, Widley.

The Golf mounted the kerb and ploughed through a fence and a brick wall before flipping on to its side and hitting a van parked in a driveway outside a house.

Him and his mate do a runner. When later interviewed by the police he denied driving the car. Seems like the fashion police were out to get him to. Not showing exactly the height of sartorial elegance his attire let him down.

Daniel Sawyer, prosecuting, said: ‘Unfortunately for Woodacre, CCTV from a petrol station showed him filling up that car that morning, wearing the pink or peach-coloured top and the red shorts described by the witnesses.’

Woodacre was sentenced to 18 months in jail and banned from driving for five years. At least while he is locked up we can assume he won’t be on the roads. However his previous record shows that he is unlikely to heed the driving ban.

What compounds this piece of driving is the fact that you are no stranger to these courts and in particular you are no stranger to the offence of bad driving.

‘You are a man now of 23 but you have been before these courts on 11 occasions for 23 convictions.’

On this basis alone, Bradley Woodacre, I award you the “Waterlooville Wally Of The Week Award”

‘Appalling’ Waterlooville driver handed 15-month prison sentence – Local – Portsmouth News.