In the Spring 2014 edition we kicked-off with a long bulletin from Badger Farm Parish Council which included news that their long standing Clerk is leaving soon and so they were looking for a new Clerk. Recent bad weather had caused problems: the winds damaged quite a number of fences, trees and shrubs, and the rain caused some problems with water penetration on walls. There had been strangers in the area asking for money in exchange for odd jobs and some trouble with Charity bags: some are not by recognised organisations; others are not being collected, or are being picked up by the wrong people. Scheduled road works were due to start in Badger Farm later in the year and there was a proposal to enforce a 20mph speed limit on some City Central roads.

Brownies reported on the fun things they do every week, including Activities, Arts and Crafts, Earning Badges, Special Events and Day Trips and Activity Holidays and Sleepovers.

Dementia Friendly Hampshire introduces dementia friendly communities “where the community at large is inclusive of people with dementia and understands how to help them. In action, this means creating a community which has the confidence to engage with people who have dementia and the skills to interact in a useful way – with understanding and patience.”

Neighbourhood Watch reminded us “If you see or hear something suspicious please report it to the police on telephone 101 giving as much detail as possible and as soon as possible.”

Our local councillors highlighted the problems resulting from the wettest winter in many years. They reported that the City Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee has set up an Informal Scrutiny Group to examine all the options for a new leisure centre.

Our local vicar talked about the discipline of Lent and shared details of a study course aimed to help us understand the fresh direction that Bishop Tim of Winchester wants us to go as we “live the mission of Jesus”

Oliver’s Battery WI planned visits to the theatre to see War Horse, to Bletchley Park, to see the snowdrops at Welford Park near Newbury and a visit to Swanage in early July by coach, repeating the very successful visit to Weymouth last year.

Squirrel class at Oliver’s Battery Primary School had been very busy earning about different traditional stories and how to be expert writers. Hedgehog class went out to tally the vehicles on Badger Farm Road.

Year 1/2 children at St Peter’s Catholic Primary School were also studying local traffic and went out and about on our school road; looking at that road with their safety heads on. Their year 3 and 4 children found out about the Anglo Saxons in Winchester in a workshop where the children were “monks” finding out about life in Anglo-Saxon times, even trying their hand at illuminated letters with “gold” paint.

Steve Brine focused on health with his Health Check Survey, as well as champion Royal Hampshire County Hospital, opening the impressive new Outpatients Department, the state-of-the-art new scanning department and the new birthing rooms in Florence Portal House. He saluted the work of our Street Pastors at the brilliant Unity Service in Winchester Cathedral to celebrate ten years of the Winchester Basics Bank.

Stanmore Primary School’s pond was given a make-over Their year 5 children spent an action packed few days at the Out of Town Centre in Beaulieu. The children fed and mucked out the animals, built survival shelters in the forest, had a close encounter with a huge owl, made rafts whilst studying the speed and flow of a river, found out that Victorian children were “seen but not heard,” and of course discovered that they could cope living away from home for a whole week.

Birds are the focus of Nature Notes. Did you know that has been illegal to take the eggs of most wild birds since the Protection of Birds’ Act 1954 and it is illegal to possess or control any wild birds’ eggs since then under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981?