The wasted money spent on Rumbridge Street, Totton has been well and truly swept under the carpet by the Conservative controlled Hampshire County Council.

It is widely believed that the environmental improvements to Rumbridge Street ended up costing taxpayers at least £300,000 more than expected, largely due to a series of blunders including laying paving stones and tarmac before fixing broken drains underneath, contractors ruining recently seeded areas and importing the wrong quality soil from Scotland.

Local traders and shoppers were angry as completed work was dug up more than once, causing delays, frustration and cost over-runs.

Conservatives repeatedly turned down Liberal Democrat calls for an independent inquiry into the bungled scheme, promising that a full review would take place within 6 months of completion of the project which was finished in February 2009. One local Tory Councillor said “This must not be swept under the carpet”.

Liberal Democrat Hampshire County Councillor, David Harrison says “It is now one year since this bungled and costly scheme was completed and it does seem to have been well and truly swept under the carpet. The public, who are picking up the bill do have a right to know what went wrong and the reasons why. I am calling upon the County Council to open up and tell us precisely what went wrong and the reasons why. It might be embarrassing to the conservative party, but lessons must be learnt”.

New Forest Liberal Democrats put forward plans for no increase in council tax.
In a budget that promised that the New Forest would be a greener, fairer and safer place, the Liberal Democrats tried to stop the ruling conservative group from imposing a 2% increase, matching a similar increase on Hampshire County Council.

Councillor David Harrison, Liberal Democrat Leader of the opposition group on New Forest District Council, told fellow councillors that there was no need to increase council tax once again. He was critical of the way the ruling group had wasted over £300,000 on the “slippery floor” legal case, equal to about £5 for every taxpayer in the district.

Cllr. Harrison said “There are many people who struggle to meet increases in council tax every year. It is high time we said enough is enough”. Liberal Democrat plans included disposal of unwanted assets and delaying expenditure. However, the bid was defeated by the ruling conservative group, keen to hold onto reserves, at least until the district elections in 2011.

I was delivering leaflets this afternoon in Eling Hill when I was alarmed by police, ambulance and fire tender sirens, all the vehicles congregating at the staggered junction of Bury Road, Eling Hill and Trotts Lane. Sadly, there had been yet another serious road traffic accident. I arrived at the scene minutes after the accident had happened.

The emergency services had matters well in hand. A police officer asked if I had witnessed what happened, I had not. I could see that at least three cars had been involved, all very badly damaged. An Air ambulance flew overhead, but did not land. Hopefully, this means that any injuries were not life threatening.

As most readers will know, this is the scene of a fatal accident last year and is something of an accident black-spot. I have already asked officers at Hampshire County Council to consider what might be done to improve safety at this junction. I do think that the speed limit should be reduced.

I will make sure that officers at the local highways office are made aware of this latest incident.

I joined a few other members of the National Park Authority this morning to learn a bit more about the practise of communing in the New Forest.

We met at a small holding located at Bolderwood before moving off to Queens House in Lyndhurst. Our host was Lindsey Stride, a young commoner who had married into a family with a very long history of commoning in the New Forest.

A school teacher, Lindsey reminded us that most commoners are not “full-timers”, many of them have jobs and fit their commoning activities around their normal working lives.

Commoning is an ancient right that still exists today to turn out any horses, cattle or pigs that you own into the open Forest. It isn’t widely understood by many visitors to the area but the New Forest exists as it does today because of the way vegetation is grazed by animals owned by commoners.

Lindsey is a great ambassador for Commoners through her direct day to day involvement in all aspects of communing. She has been active with an organisation called “The Commoners Defence Association” (like me, she doesn’t much like the name but has great respect for the organisation founded in 1909 and has fought many battles to protect their way of life). Lindsey has also been instrumental in setting up a Young Colts organisation, especially for children who she reminds us are the commoners of the future.

I suppose that the main messages I took away from all that was said and presented to me in the 3 hours of talk and dialogue was that commoning can be and should be a very rewarding way of life for those willing to commit to it. Many, many people living in the New Forest have commoning rights, but relatively few people exercise them.

There are about 7,000 animals turned out by commoners onto the Forest which is probably as much as can be sustained by the land currently available. However, it is important that the animals are properly cared for and not just abandoned. Equally, she accepted that some commoners did not always manage the land in a responsible way.

It seems that there is much to be gained by educating all commoners as to the benefits of quality animal husbandry and land use. However, it was important too to educate the public that the New Forest is a working environment. Visitors really need to understand why commoners have to do some of the things they do, including the rounding up of ponies by way of “a drift”, or the turning out of pigs to eat up all the acorns. It is only through greater understanding that some of the conflicts can be resolved.

It would seem that some of the older commoners have been very resistant to any change in the past. However, things have changed drastically in recent years. Notably, some £5 million funding from Europe, “Life” projects, which have helped restore wetland habitats. It seems different groups within the New Forest often fail to agree on how certain areas should be managed. However, through discussions and compromise, positive actions have been undertaken which have caused people to re-think their views.

A very real concern, well expressed by Lindsey, relates to the way in which commoning can be sustained in the longer term. It is essential that new young commoners are encouraged into the way of life, to replace those that die. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult for people to buy or rent the necessary back-up grazing land with necessary facilities like fencing and water.

It was also considered that government schemes for providing grant aid can be extremely complicated and not always addressing the issues.

I believe that my colleagues and I, on the New Forest National Park Authority, have benefited from a clearer understanding of some of the key issues and challenges faced by commoners in the area. We won’t be able to solve all of the problems on our own but we can continue to work in partnership with others to improve the environment for the practice of commoning to thrive.

For those wishing to learn a bit more about commoning in the New Forest, there is a web-site : www.newforestcommoners.co.uk

Totton Councillor, David Harrison paid a flying visit to the Totton Air Cadets, to present a grant cheque worth £250 to Flying Officer Gary Harding RAF VR (T).

The organisation is celebrating success, having recently won the official status of an Air Cadet Squadron. From having only three cadets in June 2006, it now enjoys a complement of 40 cadets and three additional staff.

Councillor Harrison says “I’m overjoyed that the Air Cadets in Totton are really taking off. Flying Officer Gary Harding and his team are doing a fantastic job. Hopefully, the grant money will enable more young people to enjoy the range of activities on offer”.

County Councillor for Totton South, David Harrison, is asking that the High Street in Totton could be declared a “Statutory Noise Nuisance”. The move follows complaints from residents that are woken by HGV movements at night time.

New Forest District Council has no statutory control over traffic noise once on the highway and that following exhaustive discussions with the Traffic Commissioner, the opportunities for any control through the Operators License route are remote.

At Councillor Harrison’s request, Officers from New Forest District Council undertook unattended noise monitoring from a first floor bedroom of a home overlooking the High Street and recorded the noise within that room from the 22nd to 29th October 2009. The results for the 7 day period were then analysed against the entries made on diary sheets kept by the householder.

According to the measurement data there are numerous peaks which could be attributed to lorry movements accessing and egressing the Eling Wharf Industrial Site; however, in order to differentiate between lorry movements and just passing traffic not associated with the Wharf, the analysis has focussed on those entries noted by the householders as lorry movements.

There is one period between 07:00 and 08:00 hours on 27 Oct 2009 that
appeared to have 51 vehicle movements and this coincides with a note
from the complainant stating that lorry's were constant throughout this period. The lowest 5 min LAeq (the LAeq roughly equates to an average noise level for the stated period) during this period was 27dB(A) and the highest level for a corresponding period was 63dB(A) with maximum levels consistently in the mid to upper 50dB(A) and on one occasion reached a maximum of 66 dB(A). A difference of 36 dB(A) is therefore considerable.

Not surprisingly most of the entries on the diary sheets related to the daytime period but of those at night there were occasions when the maximum noise level attributed to lorry movements was higher than
desirable for a reasonable standard in a bedroom at night i.e British
Standard 8233:1999 states that noise from an individual noise event
should not normally exceed a maximum of 45 dB(A). The World Health
Organisation publication 'Guidelines for Community Noise' also refers to a similar maximum level in a bedroom and for a good sleep this level should not be exceeded for more than 10-15 times/night.

Planning permission has recently been granted for alterations to the access. Once in place, they will enable the freer movements in and
out of the site which might minimise the amount of manoeuvring that
currently occurs.

Councillor Harrison says “I don’t think that we can ignore the serious impact that frequent noise nuisance has on the quality of life for many people living in the town. Declaring the High Street as a “Noise Nuisance Area” might be the first step in forcing the authorities to take action to improve the situation”.

I attended the first meeting of the Waterside Community Rail Partnership today, held at Hythe Parish Offices.

The meeting was Chaired by Cllr. Mel Kendal and included Councillors from Totton, Hythe & Fawley, officers from different authorities, including Southampton City Council, Marchwood Parish & Totton & Eling and Mr Phil Dominey from South West Trains.

Initially, the discussions centred around the possibility of opening up a passenger line, linking Southampton to Hythe. However, I suggested and it was subsequently agreed that we look at the possibility of a passenger service all the way to Fawley.

Officers explained that a feasibility study would cost about £15,000. The New Forest National Park Authority, New Forest District Council and Hampshire County Council have already agreed to contribute towards this cost. Parish Councils are also being asked to contribute, along with ATOC (The Association of Train Operating Companies).

It was agreed that the feasibility study would look at the business case for a passenger service, as well as the wider economic benefits and critically, the environmental benefits. We all felt that there was likely to be popular support for the proposals and that it would be relatively easy to engage with the public and get local people behind us.

Both Cllr. Weeks and I expressed reservations about what it might mean in terms of the Totton train gates. Already, the gates are closed at Junction Road for 20 minutes in every hour during the daytime. We are not supportive of anything that will worsen the situation. The addition of an hourly passenger service will likely mean another two train movements through the Junction Road gates per hour.

An officer said that at peak times there was likely to be strong demand for a half hourly service. Clearly, it is inconceivable this could happen without some sort of bridge option, or perhaps transfer of other freight services to night-time only use. This might, in turn, have undesirable noise nuisance consequences for residents living near the line, such as in Marchwood.

There was some discussion about what type of train might be employed. It definitely won’t be Steam, because of the cost and because Steam trains are not environmentally friendly. However, consideration will be given to electrifying the line, use of diesel trains and even a light rail train system. The project might proceed with its’ own trains and carriages or might simply be an extension of existing services.

I have agreed to join a small working group, a sub-committee of the new Waterside Community Rail Partnership. We will be scoping the feasibility study in advance of employing a consultant to undertake the work.

It was agreed that Officers from Hampshire County Council would issue a formal press release. In the meantime, my comment is “This is a very exciting development, with great potential benefit for thousands of people living in Totton and the Waterside. However, we will have to proceed with caution and make sure that the project does not go ahead in a way that causes more congestion in Totton or more noise nuisance elsewhere”.

Totton & Eling Twinning Association have been given a grant of £250 to help extend their activities, particularly with young people.

Totton Councillor, David Harrison, has supported the group by using a grants budget given to him by New Forest District Council. He presented the cheque at the Annual General Meeting of the Association which has about 70 members and a very full list of activities planned for the next 12 months.

Councillor Harrison was told that the money will be used to help host young French people in the Totton this month, to include participation in a range of sporting activities at the Calshot Activities Centre. He said “I’m really pleased to provide a little help to this very active and successful twinning group”.