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.

Pompey in the Community Launch event at Glenwood School – 26th February

Pompey in the Community in Partnership with Network Rail and the Football League Trust has visited secondary schools in our area explaining the dangers of playing on the railway line or playing chicken at level crossings and to understand the key railway safety messages.

Glenwood School was enthralled to have two Pompey football club players at the event, Andy Barcham and Danny Hollands who along with others encouraged year 11 pupils to take part in a workout. No encouragement was needed as the youngsters thoroughly enjoyed themselves.   After this workout we retired to a classroom and had a question and answer session with the players.

Charity Coffee Morning at the Public Service Plaza – 25th February

As February was Raynauds Awareness month I held a Coffee Morning at the Plaza promoting awareness of this very unpleasant condition as well as supporting Fairtrade Fortnight.

I was fortunate enough to have the CEO of the Raynauds and Scleroderma Association, one of my charities, along to this morning to talk to and explain the unusual condition to those present. It was a well attended coffee morning where we also had many other stalls for people to browse and shop. The morning raised a total of £257 for my charity appeal fund. Thank you to all of you who attended.

Dementia Friendly Hampshire Project – 24th February

After giving out the bananas I went along to the Meridian Centre in Havant to an exhibition presented by Dementia Friendly. There were some beautiful poetry, art work and stories by both suffers of dementia and carers. One particular poem ‘Remember Me’ brought me nearly to tears and the whole exhibition was extremely moving.   There was a white ‘tree’ on which we were invited to hang ‘leaves’ as a tree is, of course, symbolic of the passing of time and each new leaf was a sign of renewal and life.  Anybody within the Meridian Centre was invited to hang a leaf. This was an opportunity for them to learn more about dementia and its effects on all members of a family.

Fairtrade Fortnight and Bananas – 24th February

This morning as the staff arrived for work they were surprised by the vast supply of Fairtrade Bananas donated by Fyffes and Fairtrade Chocolate in the foyer which were given out by a group of us to any staff working in the Plaza.

As you can see we had great fun promoting Fairtrade!