This lazy trucker happily parked his truck so that it made life difficult for drivers to access the disabled parking bay at the Crookhorn shops.
Tag: Waterlooville
What’s Happened In Zeus Lane / Crookhorn Lane Vicinity ?
Many police cars, ambulance, paramedics and blue and white police tape. Something has occurred in around 14:30 – 15:00 timeframe.
Does anyone know ?
Egg mystery is a web cracker
When I was about seven, my dad was the village bobby in Westfield, East Sussex. The police station was a small flat-roofed extension on the side of the house in which we made our home. What made this house interesting was the garden which was well over 100 feet long. A huge space which my dad pretty much turned into a small holding. Along with the huge amount of fruit and veg my parents kept chickens and geese. I can remember seeing eggs of all colours, shapes and sizes. Only the goose eggs were as large as the egg which is the subject of the linked story. We never ever had an egg within an egg.
I can only say that, finding an egg within an egg which in total weighed nearly half a pound, this is EGGSTRAORDINARY.
Slow Snow, Slow Slow Slow
Against my better judgement, I drove my wife to work today. Normally the round trip, not accounting for waiting time, is around 30 – 35 minutes. Today, due to the inclement weather conditions, the whole journey took around 130 minutes. Of course I moaned all the way to my wifes place of work. Problem is that I had no one to moan to on my way home and that was by far the longer and worst part of the journey.
I took a few snaps during the journey which was punctuated by many tedious stops.
End of era as Havant’s last greengrocer shuts
Although reasons for this closure cannot necessarily be laid at the door of HBC, they are not helping the situation
David Guest, deputy leader of Havant Borough Council and ward member for St Faith’s, said: ‘Hopefully we have not lost it and they are able to relocate.
‘A lot of people enjoyed that shop and I’m very sorry to see it go.’
He said that independent shops were an important part of Havant.
So important that the HBC is intent on dragging shoppers away from the town centre by allowing huge developments across the other side of Park Road in the Solent Road area.
‘It’s nice for people to have a choice,’ he said.
‘As long as people use these independent shops, they will survive.
How many people have stopped using the independent stores in Havant centre since the Tesco store opened ? From personal experience I know that I don’t tend to go to smaller stores if I am doing my weekly shop in a supermarket. We are all so busy that it is more convenient to “one stop shop”.
‘There’s no guarantee they will stay around.
‘We just want to encourage more people to open small shops.’
If you want more people to open small shops then you shouldn’t allow the big stores to open up so close to the town centres.
HBC, haven’t you learnt anything ?
And you are doing the same thing to Waterlooville by allowing the new Sainsbury store to open up outside of the town centre. There is no incentive to anyone to open small shops in either of these town centres.
I feel sorry for John Wills and his family. It will be difficult for him to relocate and keep his current customers,to start afresh and build a customer base under the current economic climate and with the lack of true support from HBC. I wish him the best of luck for the future.
End of era as Havant’s last greengrocer shuts – Local Business – Portsmouth News.
‘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.
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.
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 ?
West Of Waterlooville
The proliferation of houses moves on apace. Moving ahead of and despite the lack of jobs for the future residents.
Taylor Wimpey are starting to prepare for their Phase 3 and 4 build outs. Next week, they will be felling a few trees that they are permitted to remove. Trees will be checked by an ecologist for recent evidence of bats, and appropriate steps taken if necessary, although all trees were checked not long ago.
Tomorrow, there will be a walk through of the Western Open Space, in preparation for any planting or other action required.
Grainger PLC announced at the West of waterlooville Forum that they are now a Registered Provider for social housing. The RP will be a subsidiary entity to Grainger plc. It will enable Grainger to retain greater control over the management of the affordable homes within its development pipeline over the coming years through the RP, providing greater community building capabilities
myWaterlooville – Welcome
Welcome to myWaterlooville
I’d like to say welcome, happy birthday or whatever one says on the introduction of a new website.
Congratulations to the Waterlooville Business Association on a clean, fresh looking site. You have laid the foundations of what I hope will be a long-lived, vibrant site.
I for one will be a regular visitor.
WrAnTz 