The Parish Council web site now has a new address, https://hook.gov.uk, and a fresh new look designed for us by our web master Councillor Jane Bonnin. Our aim is to provide a wide range of information to residents on the web site including dates of meetings, Focus Bulletins and minutes of past meetings. There are links to the web sites of a wide range of village organisations. We are about to include the Parish Income and Expenditure accounts on the site so that residents can see how the Parish element of their Council Tax bill is being spent.
Early in October a massive amount of graffitti appeared in the village almost overnight. The culprit has been apprehended and Hampshire Highways have successfully removed most of the mess though some areas, particularly the railway bridge, are proving hard to tackle. Much of the remaining damage is to private property and we will be providing advice to the owners concerned so that they can take appropriate action.
The Deputy Clerk has carried out a review for the Amenities Committee of all the play areas and maintainence will be carried out. Costings are being obtained for replacement of the main equipment in the Elizabeth Hall Play area and matting will be tried out in the muddy play area in Wellworth Park.
Hampshire Highways have told us that they expect to start work on the Dorchester Arms junction early in 2002. As part of the programme they intend to reduce the speed limit on the length of road between the Hanover International Hotel and the Railway bridge on the A30 from 50mph to 40mph. The Parish Council is supporting this change which is designed to gradually slow traffic down from 70mph to 30mph as it approaches the village.
Over the last year or so we have had a number of discussions with the Police about the level of Police presence in Hook. Although there is much detailed work still to be done Hampshire Constabulary has decided that P.C. Leighton Thomas will move to live in the Police House in Bramshott Drive. They will then demolish their building in London Road and replace it with a new Police Station which will be a centre for all Police Officers covering Hook, Hartley Wintney, Odiham and villages up to the Berkshire border. The result will be a much greater Police presence in the area with officers coming in and out from their new base. The intention would be that part of the building would be available for Parish Council and Community use. We would hope it would be possible, for example, for villagers to be able to come and look at Planning Applications of interest to them at nominated times in the evening and at weekends to avoid the need to take time off work and go down to Fleet.
Starting with this issue we are including contact details in Focus for our County and District Councillors. Over the next few months they will each contribute a piece about their areas of special interest. The first item is in Focus this month and is by County Councillor, and Rotherwick District Councillor, Jonathan Glen.
The next meeting of the Parish Council is Wednesday 19th December at the Community Hall at 8pm.
Antony Hunter – Parish Councillor