September 2019 ON&V is published monthly by Overton Parish Council (OPC) and is distributed Editor: Holly Foat by volunteers to every property in Overton, Ashe, & Freefolk. [email protected] www.OvertonParishCouncil.gov.uk What’s on in Overton @OvertonHants

Overton Parish Council (OPC) notes by Laura Harley (Parish Clerk)

Strategy & Recreation Parish Council: September diary The Parish Council has recently reviewed its strategy and decided to Parish Council Meeting: concentrate its efforts on 4 key areas. Wednesday 11 September, 7pm in Village Centre - Improve the look and feel of the commercial heart of the the Community Centre (Public village, supporting local businesses and reviewing parking Time 7pm – 7.30pm). Transport - Review public transport for the village in general and in particular to continue to pursue improvements at Overton railway station OPC Monthly Planning Meeting: with regard to parking, access and provision for cycle storage. Tuesday 24 September, 7.30pm, Recreation – Improve recreation facilities at Parish Council owned grounds in Community Centre. Agendas and to seek further opportunities to provide facilities in areas with fewer or and planning applications are no amenities displayed on the Parish Environment – Enhance the built environment and wider countryside within Noticeboard. The public is the parish and uphold the neighbourhood plan. welcome to attend and may A working group has been formed to come up with ideas for the recreation discuss any planning matters element of the strategy and want to know what Overtonians think. What before each meeting starts. sort of play/leisure facilities would you like to see in the village? Would an outdoor gym interest you? What about a cycle track? If you have children All parish council meetings will be or are a child yourself what sort of play equipment would you like to see in recorded. the village and where? Let the Parish Council know what you think by emailing/phoning/using social media or come to the Parish Council meeting Laverstoke & Freefolk Parish on WEDNESDAY (not Tuesday this month) September the 11th and speak Council Meeting: Tuesday 10 in public time between 7-7.30pm. We look forward to hearing what you September, 7.30pm in Lady Rose think and receiving your ideas. Anne Phillips, Chair Overton Parish Council Hall, Laverstoke Lane.

Borough council elections 2020 Climate Emergency The Electoral Commission has recently undertaken a review of the This item will now be debated at electoral arrangements for & Deane Borough Council. As a the next meeting of the parish result the number of borough councillors will be reduced from 60 to 54 and council on WEDNESDAY 11th many wards have been reorganised. From May 2020, there will be 18 three September 2019 – please come member wards and Overton will be in a new borough ward – Whitchurch, along to listen and join in as this Overton and Laverstoke. The borough council election – due to take place will be an open item on the on Thursday 7th May 2020 – will therefore be for all 54 borough councillors agenda. As always the meeting will representing the new warding arrangements. be held in the Community Centre starting at 7.00pm. Community Centre tree update The tree officer from Basingstoke & Deane Borough council has been to VE75 – 8th May 2020 look at the large Field Maple in the Community Centre forecourt and has The May Day bank holiday has advised that the fine surface roots should be removed and the crown been moved from Monday 4th May reduced. The setts will then be replaced with a larger planting pit. The work 2020 to Friday 8th May 2020 to to the tree cannot take place until the autumn and so the centre of the allow for the 75th Anniversary of village will continue to look a bit tatty until then. the Victory in Europe to be celebrated. The parish council is Orchard and Orchard Day hoping to organise several events Are you aware that Overton has a Community Orchard which is situated to including a tea party, football the west of the Overton Hill car park. Please feel free to pick the apples as match and an exhibition of period they ripen (there are lots of different varieties that ripen at different times) exhibits to name but a few. If you and there is due to be an apple day on 13th October 2019 (more news of are interested in helping out or this in the October edition of News & Views). have any ideas, please contact me. AGM – St Luke’s Hall This will take place at 6pm on 2nd September 2019 in St Luke’s Hall and The deadline for October’s all are welcome to attend. ON&Vs is the 15th September 2019 . OPC notes continued by Laura Harley (Parish Clerk) Village Diary - Regular events Bonfires Overton & Whitchurch NCT coffee Before you have a bonfire please consider the effect on your neighbours. morning: Fortnightly. See Facebook Smoke can prevent your neighbours enjoying their gardens, opening [email protected] windows or hanging out washing. It also reduces visibility in the neighbourhood and on roads. Bonfires cause air pollution and can give rise St Luke’s Short Mat Bowls Club: Monday to harmful pollutants which can adversely affect those with chronic health 7.30pm-9.30pm, Wednesday 2pm-4pm conditions such as asthma. Bonfires can be dangerous and fire can spread and Thursday 7.30-9.30pm. )770409. to fences or buildings and scorch trees and plants. Although there aren’t any laws to prohibit bonfires or restrictions around the time of the day one can be Village Agent Drop-in Centre: 3rd & 17th September 10-12 in the Palmer Room at lit, please follow these guidelines to avoid causing a nuisance to your ) neighbours: the Community Centre. 07843 853003.

• Only burn dry material. • Never burn household rubbish, rubber tyres or Steady & Strong exercise class: anything containing plastic, foam or paint. • Never use oil, methylated spirits Tuesdays 10:30 at Harveys Field and or petrol to light the fire or encourage it. • Do not light a bonfire in 12noon at Gill Nethercott Centre. unsuitable weather conditions. • Do not light a bonfire when air pollution Contact Gary Burrow )302210. in your area is high. This information is included in weather forecasts. You can check by phoning 0800 556677 or at www.airquality.co.uk. • Avoid Age Concern Social Group: Tuesday 2- burning when neighbours have windows open or washing hanging out. 4pm Harveys Field. Margaret )771710. • Never leave a fire unattended or smouldering. Douse it with water, if necessary, to ensure it is out. • Avoid lighting a bonfire at weekends and on Little Creations: Thursday mornings term bank holidays when people want to enjoy their gardens. time, toddler group run by the Community Church in the Town Meadow Hut. Dog poo in bags We can’t go very long without a mention of dog poo! This time it is people Charity Coffee Morning: Thursdays 10-12 picking up the dog poo and then depositing the bags on the verge, in a tree in front hall of Methodist Church. or anywhere else that is not a bin! There has been a particularly big problem with this in Waltham Road lately – and from a particularly big dog judging Coffee, Colour and Chat: first Thursday of from the size of the bags! There are more than 60 bins in Overton – please the month 10.30-11.45am at White Hart. use them! )07745327049

Campaign Flyers Construction Club: Overton Library, every The parish council has recently been notified of anonymous flyers circulated Thursday after school. in the village with reference to two local campaigns against the grain store at Northington and the proposed kebab van in the Overton Hill car park. Neither Overton Pagan Moot: First Thursday of 8 of these flyers was produced by Overton Parish Council as we always state the month. [email protected] who printed and published a document. Any political information should Overton Garden Society: 2nd Thursday of always state this information and it would seem fair that any such flyers month at 7.30pm in Community Centre. circulated around the village should do the same. If you are not prepared to put your name to a campaign – should you be producing a leaflet? Balance Confidence exercise class: Friday 11:45 at Scout Hut. Contact Louise September Surgery News )07908 851570. Team Update: Good news that Nurse Natasha Lewington starts on 2nd September and a new doctor, Dr Kate Hughes, will begin 4 sessions per Friday Toddlers: Fridays: 10-11.30am in week on the 3rd September. the St Mary's Church Rooms. £1 The Toenail clinic is aimed at over 55’s (this could be waived in exceptional circumstances for patients with mobility issues). The cost is £16 per Club2O Alternate Fridays in the Church appointment; you will receive a foot health check and professional toe-nail Rooms. For children in years 4, 5 & 6. 7- cutting, by Ian Bruce. No referral is required from a doctor. Age Concern in 8.30pm. Games and fun. Pete )770243 Basingstoke will deal with all bookings, cancellations, etc. )423874 Flu Clinics: Our flu clinics will be held towards the end of September and The Community Church most Sunday mid-October. Invitations via email and text (not letters) will be sent to patients mornings. 10am at St. Luke's Hall. as reminders so if you have an elderly relative please check the surgery Traidcraft Sales: 2nd and 4th Saturdays website https://watershipdownhealth.com/ for any updates. Flu jabs are of the month. Sales of fairly-traded food & available and strongly recommended if you are pregnant, over 65 years old crafts. 9.30-12.00 at Methodist Church. or have a long term medical condition that makes you vulnerable to the complications of flu. Further information about eligibility can be found at MoviTime News https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/who-should-have-flu-vaccine/. On Friday 20 September Red Joan will be Children between 2 and 4 have the immunisation using a nasal spray at the shown. The doors of St Mary’s Hall open surgery whilst children in reception class through to year 5 will have it at at 7.15pm for a 7.45pm start. Tickets are school. £5 in advance from Overton Gallery or £5.50 on the door. Drinks and Overton Memorial Institute refreshments are available before the film Saturday 21st September at the Stute is Ricky and the gamblers, fantastic 7 starts. piece 60/70s soul band plus DJ Craig playing the best in soul / Motown. Members £5.00 (£7.50 on night), guests £7.50 (£10.00 on night) tickets on sale 8.00pm - 1.00am Cover photo: Deborah Gordon

Police News Your local Police Officer is PCSO Andy Jones Village Diary - September 2019 andrew.jones.13301@.pnn.police.uk Emergency )999 Sunday 1 September: Overton 5 Road [email protected] Race organised by Overton at 2pm Follow @BstokeRuralCops Police Enquiry Centre & non-emergencies )101 Crimestoppers charity )0800 555 111 www.hampshire.police.uk Tuesday 3 September: Overton WI Meeting Where do Medicines Come from. Overton, Laverstoke & Steventon Dr W Dawson )770681 On 3 July, we received reports of a male exposing himself at the Edward [email protected] Kersley playing fields. Later that day, a male approached a female and tried to www.hampshirewi.org.uk grab hold of her. These incidents are fortunately rare in the area. Both are being investigated. On 26 July, a rear windscreen was damaged at Pound Wednesday 4 September: Overton Folk Road. On 28 July, property was stolen from a works van at Station Road. Club from 8pm in the Community Centre. We have had several calls about suspicious activity. These includes reports of We will start the autumn season on with a people selling goods door-to-door. A resident received a call from someone singaround night. We get people purporting to be the police requesting credit card details. Please do not provide performing a wide variety of acoustic ) banking details to unsolicited calls. If you continue to receive unwanted calls, music so why not come along! 770384 enquire about call barring with your provider. On 7 July, we had two reports of Saturday 7 September: Overton Market & occupants of a while transit removing items from skips. If you hire a skip then Overton Parish Council Surgery 10am- arrange for its removal - don’t leave them on your property as the contents 12noon, St Mary’s Hall. attracts this sort of activity. Tuesday 10 September: Overton Bobby Buddies Community Association AGM at 7.30pm If you are a knitting enthusiast and could knit some Bobby Buddies (police in the Overton Community Centre. The bears given to children who may be going through a distressing experience) Community Centre is now the property of email [email protected] and we will send you the the village and is managed by a board of pattern. Finished bears can be handed in at Basingstoke police station. trustees. Come along to our AGM to find Letters to the editor out all about it and how you can get Have you heard of the U3A? involved. All residents of Overton over the An organisation run by volunteers all over the country for retired and semi age of 18 years are welcome to become retired people. Many volunteers run many groups for many participants. The members. groups can include card games, mahjong, outings, walking, lunches, dancing, singing, photography, computers, crafts, languages, gardens, and much more. Saturday 14 September: Baby and Membership of the U3A is £15 per year and you can join as many groups as Children's Table Top sale 10am - 12 noon you have time for. Contributions to the group is usually 50p but maybe a little at the Community Centre. Just £10 for a more if held in a hall. For more information go to www.overtonu3a.org.uk. table, book by contacting [email protected]. A Whitchurch Green Week and Green Fair great opportunity to sell unwanted items, Whitchurch is to have its own Green Week and Green Fair this September and to buy everything you need from running from Saturday 21st to Sunday 29th as part of Basingstoke’s Borough- clothes to toys to book to small wide initiative. It has input from several local organisations including, amongst equipment for babies and children. others, the excellent new 'Low Waste Whitchurch' group, the very active 'Walkers are Welcome’ team and the focussed 'Keep Test Valley Beautiful’ Thursday 19 September: Bat and Moth campaign. During the Week several events are taking place including Litter Evening with Overton Biodiversity Society Picks, a talk on Bio-Digesters, Walking and Cycling events, as well as 7-9pm. Join us for an evening looking at promotion of regular activities. On the afternoon of Saturday 28th September a bats and moths. Event facilitated by Green Fair is being held at the Gill Nethercott Centre (1.30-4.30pm) with a Claire Andrews of CA Ecology. Numbers number of displays and activities ranging from making Beeswax Wraps to are limited so please call )771121 to EcoBricks, Electric vehicles, details of a new local Bus Walk route and book and for more info. Donations to the information from the Harewood Incinerator Campaign. The full programme can Hampshire Bat Group. £2 for members, be seen at www.whitchurchgreen.org.uk. Grateful thanks are given to £2.50 non-members (inc refreshments) for their support and to 'Low Waste Whitchurch' and other groups who promote sustainable living activities. Wednesday 18 September: Overton & District U3A 10am at St Mary’s Hall when Children on bikes our speaker will be Lydia Bauman, an It has been alarming during the school summer holidays to see some very artist and art historian. Her talk will be young children, not always wearing cycle helmets, careering around roads in ‘Looking for Georgia O’Keeffe’ an the village, weaving in and out of parked cars and cycling on and off American artist, well known for her pavements, without showing one iota of road sense. These roads are not paintings of flowers and Mexican children's playgrounds and although users of motorised vehicles need to take landscapes. Visitors pay £3 on the door. due care and pay attention, the complete disregard by the youngsters of any road sense could so readily lead to tragedy. I am uncertain if any Bikeability Sunday 22 September: Heritage Overton courses (the successor to Cycling Proficiency Tests) take place locally. Some Guided walk Overton’s Churches. If you of the children may be too young to participate so it would be down entirely to are interested in finding out about the parents to instil some road sense before allowing them on the public highway. history of Overton’s churches, join us for Name and address supplied this walk led by Adrian Lewis Meet at 2pm at St Mary’s Church ending with refreshments at the Methodist Church Easy walking, £3, all welcome Transport News Letters to the editor For information about the Stagecoach bus services between Basingstoke and Overton History Andover please go to www.stagecoachbus.com. For rail services, please go to Around 35 years ago I met a lady who www.southwesternrailway.com. used to live in Overton in the 1920/30s, her name was Mary Crimble. At the time There are a number changes to weekend train services during the course of she was in her mid-seventies and living in September. Whilst none of these directly impact Overton, passengers should Enham Alamein. She recalled the hard be aware of the following: time her family had running two farms Saturday 7 September: passengers to London will need to change at around Overton. “The weather was so Basingstoke as closure of some platforms at Waterloo will reduce the number bad crops failed several times. We tried of trains to London. sugar beet but even that failed. It cost five Sunday 22 September: a replacement bus service will operate between hard earned shillings for a bottle of Andover and Salisbury medicine from the Doctor in Winchester Saturday 28 September: all lines between Basingstoke and Woking will be Street. Others in the Crimble family ran closed with a replacement bus service between the two. Alternative routes to Southington Corn Mill, we remortgaged London are available via Reading to London Paddington. There are also several times but the 1930s depression alterations to times on the service from Basingstoke to Salisbury. finished us off, we had to sell up and Sunday 29 September: due to line closures at Woking there will be a move out. The farms had to sell the nine replacement bus service between Basingstoke and Guildford for connections cart-horses and all the gear, plus other to London and additional trains between Basingstoke and Southampton farm items. We never made enough to Central for passengers heading toward Weymouth. Passengers for London are start going again it was so sad to leave advised, where possible, to travel via Reading to London Paddington. the village but we could not stay so we Salisbury services will be operating as normal but passengers are again moved to Smannell near Andover then to advised to check times. Knights Enham then Enham. The vicar of Advance warning: most weekends in October will bring significant changes to Overton kept in touch with us and gave services due to engineering works. help as much as he could, but there was so much unemployment it was such a Letters to the editor struggle for poor folk. Our money went Thank You and the family slowly departed. I pray it Ruth Wood and family would like to express their sincere thanks to everyone never happens again.” In memory of who attended Fred’s service of thanksgiving and for the many cards and Mary Crimble and family. Richard Oram. generous donations for the Salvation Army. Lordsfield Swimming Club News HGV access to Dellands The pool was officially opened by Mike In the last 2 weeks, I have had 2 incidents with HGV vehicles in Dellands. In Bushell and music by Bill Batten (Amigo the first instance, a lorry driver refused to reverse out of Dellands Lane, Entertainments). Thanks to everyone who causing a number of cars to reverse back up the road during peak commuting came along. The last swim of the season time. It was pointed out that there is no HGV access via that route, but to no will be on Saturday 31 August, 2-4pm, avail! At 5.20am on 6th August, there was a huge lorry carrying a container followed 4:30-6:30pm a pool party & BBQ stuck at the top of Dellands attempting to turn right. Clearly that wasn’t going to for all our active volunteers. The pool will happen; so the residents were then treated to at least 20 minutes of a loud close after the kids have completed their engine and a beeping lorry whilst it reversed past the parked cars! I see a Challenge tests on Sun 1 September - number of lorries, caravans and other unsuitable vehicles using the road and it good luck to them all. Many thanks to the is only a matter of time before this happens again. It seems that this is getting Charlton family for generously donating more frequent, especially when HGV drivers don’t appear to be using the £400 from Andy Charlton's memorial correct Sat Nav for their vehicles. Please can I ask that if anyone is having football match - very much appreciated deliveries, work completed or anything that requires an HGV to be on Dellands that we let them know that they have to access the road via Greyhound Lane? Thank You And can the council please put signs up at both ends of the road, perhaps also Norma & Fred Clark would like to thank on Sapley Lane? And make the signs that are already in place a bit clearer for everyone for their kindness and support people to see? Many thanks, Gemma at the loss of their daughter Karen who died on the 18 th July.

Visit us : Overton Parish Council Contact us for problems/comments about Overton Parish Council matters (OPC) Office is in the Overton Anne Phillips (Chair) [email protected] 770350 Community Centre and is open to the public from 9am-1pm on Colin Fowles (Vice Chair) [email protected] 771090 Margaret Oram [email protected] Tuesdays and 1pm-5pm on Jane Dooley [email protected] Thursdays (to coincide with the Richard Cook [email protected] library opening times). Gary Beecham [email protected] Parish Clerk: Laura Harley. Stuart Chessell [email protected] Alison Zarecky [email protected] Contact: 771919 or Chris Pitt [email protected] [email protected] Rodney Hunter [email protected] or c/o Overton Community Centre, High Street, RG25 3HB. For Laverstoke & Freefolk Parish Council, contact Nicky: [email protected]

ON&V is printed for Overton Parish Council (the Publishers) by John Dollin Printing Services, 5 Evingar Trading Estate, Whitchurch RG2 8 7BB Contact: [email protected] or )892969