Hampshire Music Education Hub – Visit to present the Council with an Award – 12th March

In order to show their appreciation to Hub partners two members of the Hampshire Music Education Hub came to the parlour to present me as the Mayor and Claire Hughes, Community Service Manager here at Havant Borough Council, with a plaque certificate to mark this appreciation.

The Hub partnerships are designed to strengthen, diversify and ensure a quality music education for all young people and is run by Hampshire County Council.

It was a pleasure to meet both Abby Roch, and Abbie Richardson to chat about quality music education opportunities they offer.

Havant Neighbourhood Watch Association Annual General Meeting – 11th March

This meeting was held at the Public Service Plaza in the Council Chamber. I was given the opportunity to welcome all the co-ordinators and thank them for their hard work, as volunteers, for Havant Neighbourhood Watch. There are 400+ Havant, NW Co-ordinators covering 10,000 households in Havant, Hayling Island, Bedhampton, Emsworth and Rowlands Castle – all are volunteers.   It is quite an eye opener to see just how many people in our Borough spend such a lot of time volunteering to do good work which helps the residents so much and without them, Havant would not be such a good place to be.

Eastleigh Civic Day – 11th March

The day commenced at the Pavilion on the Park Eastleigh where we had the opportunity to ride on the Cycles4All Bicycles which was certainly an experience. I sat on a tandem on the front giving me no control over steering or braking and I was reliant on the person behind me who had never ridden one before either. We managed to get to our destination and with great difficulty dismounted. After this we were taken to Southampton/Eastleigh airport where we were given a talk on the development of the airport over the years followed immediately by an incredible experience of being driven in a coach down the runway! After an excellent trip to Eastleigh College for an extremely good lunch well served by the students we went to the Ageas Bowl. Unfortunately I was unable to walk around it but it is quite an exceptional site despite, by this time, horrible weather.   An extremely interesting, fact finding day.

Annual Visit of the Mayor to the Rotary Club of Cosham – 10th March

It is traditional for the Mayor of Havant to be invited to talk annually to the members of the Rotary Club of Cosham. This was held at the Inn Lodge, Burrfields Road, Portsmouth where the food served was excellent only surpassed by the hospitality of the members of the club. At the end of the evening I was delighted to receive a cheque in aid of my chosen charities from the club. This is extremely kind as I know how many good projects they support.

Havant Youth Sail Training Scheme Annual General Meeting – 9th March

Having attended this meeting in my capacity as Deputy Mayor last year, when the scheme was struggling to keep its head above water it was such a pleasure to re-visit this year and find that they had obviously turned a corner and everything is so much more positive now. Well done to the Chairman all the Committee and volunteers who have made such a tremendous effort for something that is so worthwhile particularly in this part of the world as they introduce so many young people into the sailing environment.

Hampshire East Trefoil Guilds (girl guiding) Annual General Meeting – 9th March

This was held at St Wilfrid’s Church Hall, Padnell Road, Cowplain. It was attended by many of those who had been active in the Guide Movement mostly for many years. We had a very entertaining speaker Mrs Avril Stouse who gave us a talk on ‘Who Likes Cruising’.   This was very funny and even someone who before then had no desire to go on a cruise, actually felt as if she could live with one!

After this we enjoyed a lunch followed by a ‘Social Activity’ which amounted to all of us joining hands in the room and doing dances. It was hilarious. Although we were instructed how to perform the dances we were in the main totally hopeless and it ended in fits of laughter. Thank you all for a very enjoyable day.

Fly a Flag for the Commonwealth – 9th March

This was the second year that the Commonweath Flag was raised at the Public Service Plaza, Havant on the 9^th March at the request of her Majesty The Queen.  The ceremony began with my reading the Commonwealth Affirmation followed by a message from Kamalesh Sharma the Commonwealth Secretary General.   After these two readings one of my cadets, Cadet Flight Sergeant Louis Richardson-Browne raised the flag to fly for the duration of the day.

An Evening of Music and Memorabilia Commemorating World Wars of the 20th Century – 7th March

This was hosted by the Chairman of Hampshire County Council in the Great Hall, Winchester and was a wonderful evening of music, singing and drama. This was a fantastic concert enjoyed by all the people present. We had performances from sections of the Hampshire Youth Orchestra a Drama production by some young men from a school in Winchester which was very thought provoking and extremely well done. The evening culminated in the singing of a beautiful anthem, “We will remember them” (2009) by special permission for the event by the co-writer Mark Read truly something to remember.

Commodore’s Dinner at Hayling Island Sailing Club – 6th March

I was privileged to be invited to attend the Commodore’s Dinner at Hayling island Sailing Club. It was a pleasure to meet with members of the club and other invited guests from neighbouring sailing clubs. We are so lucky to have such a prestigious sailing club in our Borough which hosts so many national and international sailing events. It was a wonderful evening – thank you very much for the invitation and opportunity.

Visit by the Burgermeister and other officers of Henstedt-Ulzburg and members of Waterlooville Twinning Association – 6th March

This afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting with a delegation from Henstedt Ulzburg which is a suburb of Hamburg accompanied by some representatives from the Waterlooville Twinning Association. The two towns are also twinned with Maurepas, near Paris.

The reason for the visit was the desire of the Henstedt-Ulzburg community to develop links with the local community in Waterlooville and Havant using the local Council where possible to facilitiate. They had previously visited two schools and a College before we met.

South Downs College, Oaklands, School and Cowplain School.   Building on previous links with Cowplain School who had been working with the Alstergymnasium School in Henstedt-Ulzburg they hope that the Council may be able to facilitate in encouraging community exchanges particularly but not exclusively amongst young people.

Visit to Mill Hill Primary School Ofsted Celebration Event – 6th March

I attended this event which was a celebration of the improved Ofsted report it was organised along the theme of “Lights, camera, action” – this is the project for the school this half term.

A variety of activities were available to be seen and enjoy.

Congratulations to the Head of School, Executive Head Teacher and all the staff on achieving the “Good” result from Ofsted.

Motiv8’s 5th Birthday Celebrations at the Plaza – 5th March

Motiv8 in Havant offers a range of activities for young people aged between 11-21.

They deliver daytime open sessions where young people can drop-in to get advice and guidance on finding an apprenticeship or a training course to help them into employment. They also offer benefits advice and other support. They offer youth club facilities in Leigh Park, Wecock Farm, Stakes and Hayling Island. They also work with young people in schools, in the community and with employers and colleges.

It was a pleasure to share their 5^th Birthday Celebrations by cutting a birthday cake and taking part in some activities with the organisers.

Trip Out in Police Response Patrol Car – 4th March

I began this with a visit to Waterlooville Police Station where I attended the briefing prior to the start of the shift. After the briefing I had to have a risk assessment before going out with two police officers Kelvin and Steve. When we left the police station it was quite warm once the sun went down however this changed I was frozen. However both policemen at this stage were still in tee shirts! It was a fascinating experience to witness the work that our officers routinely do during the course of their shift. Both Kelvin and Steve were very solicitous of my safety and where appropriate I stayed in the car.   Having made an arrest at about 10.15 – 10.30 pm it meant that they would be very late finishing their shift as they would then have all their paperwork to do from 3.00 pm until the finish of their shift at 12 midnight.

My grateful thanks to Sergeant Andrea Heywood for organising and to Kelvin and Steve for hosting my blues’ n’ twos experience!

Visit to Angel Radio – 4th March

A very enjoyable opportunity to “meet the people of Havant Borough” by talking to Tony Smith at Angel Radio. I was quite anxious about this before I went but Tony put my escort and myself at ease – he was so easy to talk to and my fears were unfounded. It was a great opportunity to meet all those volunteers who inhabit the offices of Angel Radio and find out about the work they do.   The office is crammed full of tapes, discs and records of hundred of thousands of recordings of music. I have no idea how many people stopped what they were doing to listen to what I had to say, but I felt important enough, to imagine there was a vast number!!!!! Thank you Tony and team for a fabulous morning, it went so quickly.

Havant Borough Sports Association, 35th Annual Sports Awards – 26th February

These awards are held to acknowledge the outstanding sporting talent, dedication, sportsmanship and achievements of individuals and clubs in the Borough.

The award ceremony started with an exhibition by South Coast Spinners who are a baton twirling group based in Drayton. The girls were very enthusiastic about their performance and it was a lovely and unusual way to start the evening. Andy Moon, BBC Radio Solent commentator did a wonderful job of presenting the evening.

John Hogg the Chairman of Havant Borough Sports Association gave us an explanation of how this organisation has progressed over the years. Awards were presented to winners and runners up for individuals within sports, including coaches, and to the winning and runner up teams. I was utterly delighted when I was able to present one of my grandsons with the winning team award-( Havant Junior Hockey Team)! Well done all of you whether you won or not.