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.