Although there’s still snow in the weather forecast, we’ve been busy bringing you the Spring 2018 edition of Community News.

In this edition

Simon Lever shares his positive view of our community before taking us on a walk over Whiteshute Ridge.

The children of Oliver’s Battery Pre-school are now getting ready for Spring. Their teachers have lots of exciting activities planned for them with topics including Chinese New Year, Mother’s Day and Easter. The term will end with the annual Easter Egg Hunt and picnic. The children will also be enjoying the fresh spring air in the secure outside space, with fully equipped mud kitchen and abundance of outdoor toys.

Oliver’s Battery Primary School are very proud to announce that they have been ranked second in Hampshire for the amount of progress that the children achieved. They are excited about a new partnership with St Swithun’s School and know that this will add to the rich curriculum that already offered at school. The grounds team worked hard to clear the area around the pond, allowing the wildlife to flourish and will create some great pond-dipping opportunities. Volunteers from the NSPCC delivered a workshop to parents on how to keep children safe online. The workshop shared information on how parents could approach conversations with their children about their online activity, an update on different apps and technologies and information about where parents could go to for support if they had concerns.

Badger Farm Parish Council welcomed two new Councillors, John Parsons and Harvey Skinner. Harvey is taking on launching a new Twitter account and keeping us up to date with transport news. John is putting his experience to great use developing a new website for the parish. If you are interested in helping the local community, you might like to be involved in the Great British Spring Clean event which takes place on Sunday 4th March.

The Oliver’s Battery Parish Plan has been published and adopted by the Oliver’s Battery Parish Council. Active participation of Oliver’s Battery residents is crucial to the successful implementation of the parts of the plan, for example, to help improve local transport, to help improve community communications and to plan and arrange events, activities and groups for Oliver’s Battery residents.

Our local councillors report on issues with properties in Texas Drive and Harrow Down. There has been an increase Fly Tipping locally which has been linked to the charge for tipping rubbish at the dump brought in by Hampshire County Council. Please look out for any littering and fly-tipping and report it to Hampshire County Council or Winchester City Council or on Fix My Street.

OBCC is continuing to progress the project to replace St Mark’s Church hall with a new community centre for Oliver’s Battery. In 2018, they will be preparing an application for planning permission to provide the parish with an up-to-date facility for the use of residents and local user groups. The next fund-raising event will be Jac Gehring’s popular and successful community choir, ‘Sing Winchester’, on Friday 18th May at St Mark’s hall. Tickets can be requested via obccltd2016@gmail.com

Oliver’s Battery Parish Council has recently received some complaints concerning parking in Oliver’s Battery Road South. A Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) has been prepared to replace some existing single yellow lines with double yellow lines and for new double yellow lines to be placed at certain bends and junctions to improve safety. The TRO is subject to a formal consultation process. Residents affected by the proposals have been asked for their views. The improvements to the Oliver’s Battery Road South and Badger Farm Road junction are currently in the detailed design stage. It is anticipated that work will commence on site in Spring 2018. Elections to the Parish Council are held every four years with the next elections  in May 2018. Any resident of the parish who is registered as a local government elector may stand for election as long as they are proposed and seconded by residents who are also electors.

MP Steve Brine shares a taster from Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on the future of farming. Steve has been re-appointed Public Health Minister in the New Year reshuffle and, in his role as Cancer Minister, celebrates the best ever one-year survival rates recently reported. He want us to aim for the best cancer outcomes in the world and that means a step-change to faster diagnosis, renewed focus on research and continued innovation in treatment options.

Easter Day this year falls on All Fools Day, 1st April. Many people find Religious Faith foolish but the Christian church is call to be ‘fools for the sake of Christ’. Come celebrate the foolishness of Christ with at St Luke’s and St Mark’s parish churches this Easter, you are always welcome.

Winchester City Council is keen to know your thoughts on the open spaces they manage within the City area. They are therefore undertaking the first-ever comprehensive survey of the main open spaces, to help them better manage the areas for the future. They would love to know which areas you visit and why.

New Year is well underway for Oliver’s Battery WI and with it an interesting agenda of talks, walks and visits to sign up for. The January Meeting found them Lost in Austen – Jane’s World, during which Martha Lloyd, who was born in 1765 and was a close friend of Jane Austen’s, came to visit, enacted by Ms Jane Glennie regaled in full period costume! With a Centenary Concert celebrating 100 years since the formation of HCWFI and 100 years since the 1st World War at the Anvil in March, a Spring Council Meeting at Portsmouth, a May Fest in Eastleigh plus a trip to Wisely Gardens in June there are numerous and varied events to interest everyone.

In Nature Notes, Norma asks “Did you take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend of 27/28 January?” She saw blue tit, blackbird, blackcap, chaffinch, collared dove, dunnock, goldfinch, greenfinch, house sparrow, robin, starling and woodpigeon. Michael McCarthy, author of “Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo” and “The Moth Snowstorm” has written about what he calls “the vanishing of abundance in the natural world”. This may sound daunting but now there are umpteen places all over the UK where restoration ecology is taking place and the Whiteshute Ridge grazing is just one example.

Upcoming topics at local meetings of the Winchester Local Group Hampshire and IOW Wildlife Trust include an illustrated talk on the South Downs National Park.

Until recently, when a family member died you would look through their filing cabinet to find details of their accounts, browse their address book to find their contacts and inherit their physical photo albums. But things are different now that so much is online. Learn how to organise your digital legacy in Ann’s Computer Corner.