Season’s Greetings from all the Trustees of Badger Farm & Oliver’s Battery Resident’s Community Association and all of us here at the Community Centre. With only a few weeks until Christmas, take a few minutes out to enjoy the latest edition of Community News.

Significant progress has been made over the past few months to secure the long-term future of Whiteshute Ridge as an area of pasture to the south of Badger Farm. It is being developed to allow shared public access and introduce British white cattle later in the year. Read more about it in our focus article. All are welcome to come along to our next ‘meet and greet’ on the Ridge, which we will organise after the cattle have settled in.

Highlights of our other news

Councillor Brian Laming and MP Steve Brine both celebrate the new health care hub which has opened at Badger Farm Surgery, right next to the Community Centre, and update us on proposed improvements to the Oliver’s Battery junction and other transport issues.

The Community Bookcase is now open at St. Mark’s in Oliver’s Battery every Thursday morning between 10 and 11:15. This is an informal replacement for the now defunct mobile library service. Come and have a drink at the Coffee Pop Inn and enjoy meeting people in the community while choosing some books to borrow.

Find out about local events being held by Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.

Badger Farm Parish Council encourage us to use the Your Winchester app (Apple, Android); it  is an excellent way of recording problems and logging them with Winchester City Council. Following from the successful wildflower project this summer, Oliver’s Battery Parish Council plan to extend the wildflower areas on the Battery and they support the plan to erect some bird nesting boxes in the parish in memory of Maurice Walker, a long term resident of Oliver’s Battery and former chairman of the local RSPB group.

The Year 6 children at Oliver’s Battery Primary School have been busy with a trip to Calshot, engaging in a project on Rights, Respect and Responsibilities and applying to be House Captains.

Simon Lever celebrates the work of Colin, the grass-cutter on Whiteshute Ridge, whose grass ‘pathways’ allowing ease of access are a joy to behold.

At Oliver’s Battery Pre-school, as always, the children have been having lots of messy fun creating some fantastic crafts – Rainbows, Handprint leaves for our Autumn Tree, Fire Pictures and for Christmas they will be continuing the crafty theme by making their own  Crowns and Christmas Placemats ready for their Christmas Party.

Oliver’s Battery WI Group  provided marshalling in local roads for the Winchester Half Marathon, showing that the WI is not just about Jam & Jerusalem, but friendship, learning, support, fun and activity.

Badger Farm Social Club is social club for all the family hidden within the Badger Farm Community Centre, run for the community by the community. Do pop in to see what’s

on offer and ask for a Membership Form!

Neighbourhood Watch give us the latest advice on cyber crime.

Winchester Radio is a not-for-profit FM-band radio service for Winchester and the surrounding villages, run by people living in Winchester. Anyone living in Winchester will be able to get involved from early 2018.

Oliver’s Battery Community Centre have two fund-raising events planned for the spring. On Saturday 16th February is the return of ‘The Little Big Band’ playing the arrangements of such legends as Duke Ellington, Glen Miller, Count Basie and many more. Jac Gehring’s Community Choir will be returning on Friday 18th May. Her enthusiastic members will again be demonstrating their choral talent with a varied programme.

Almost ten years ago, a small number of volunteers from Oliver’s Battery set up a new care group. Over time. that group has become the Winchester Good Neighbours. 2017 has seen over twenty-five volunteers regularly giving of their time to helping others. However, requests for neighbourly assistance are on the increase and they would be  delighted to hear from you if you are able to help for a couple of hours a month.

Hampshire County and Winchester City Councils are running a joint public consultation asking people who live in, work in, or visit Winchester to give their views on travelling in and around the city. he Movement Strategy will set out an agreed vision and long-term goals for traffic and transport improvements in Winchester over the next 20 to 30 years. It will provide a framework from which we can develop detailed proposals and specific target measures. You can provide your feedback online on Hantsweb.

Eliminate one of Christmas’ most tedious jobs! Learn how to use Microsoft Word to automatically create address labels for your Christmas cards in Ann’s Computer Corner.

Norma shares fascinating facts about thatching and conkers in Nature Notes. You may be aware that some words of the natural world no longer feature in the Oxford Junior Dictionary. Twenty of these words are now featured in a truly magical book called “The Lost Words”, for grandparents to read with grandchildren and share their own childhood memories and to encourage them to get outside and enjoy what our countryside still has to offer.