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 News
Older articles can be found in our News Archive section.
Police
Beat Surgery
News item added Nov
2008 when removed from home page
The beat surgery was held on Wednesday the 3rd
of September, from 18.30 until 19.30 at the village hall. It was an
opportunity to meet our local beat officers and raise any issues you may
have. No residents raised any issues at the surgery, which we hope reflects
that residents are happy with security in the area.
The
Vale
News item added Nov
2008 when removed from home page
 A new youth started on
Wednesday 10th January. It’s held every Wednesday in term time,
7pm – 8.30pm at Brookvale Village Hall. £1 per entry. It’s for school years
7+, come and see what’s on offer or phone Sarah and Andy on 07890 708696.
Rainbows,
Brownies and Guides
News item added Nov
2008 when removed from home page
St
Michael's Brownies and Guides have spaces available for girls wishing to
find out about Guiding. We have lots
of fun together, learning new
skills and making new friends. Some
of the things we get up to include outings and trips, crafts, community work, working towards badges,
cooking, dance and games, and campfire songs. We are especially looking
forward to celebrating 100 years of Guiding in 2010, which coincides with
the Brownie Pack's 50th birthday. We all have great fun together and would
love to hear from girls who would like to find out more. Brownies is open to girls aged between 7
and 10, and Guides in open to girls aged between 10 and 14. We are also interested in hearing from
any adults that would be interested in helping out, in however large or
small a way, especially with running a Rainbow Group for girls aged between
5 and 7. For more information,
please contact Sue Smith on 01256 411034.
A
word from Sarah and Paul, our ACSOs
News item added Nov
2008 when removed from home page
 Our names are Sarah Fordham and
Paul Bowman, we are Accredited Community Safety
Officers or ACSOs, Working for Hampshire County
Council’s Community Safety Team. We have recently taken on Brookvale as one
of our areas to patrol along with Kings Furlong, Grove, Black Dam and Fairfields.
The
role of the ACSOs across Basingstoke
and Deane is to help reduce the fear of crime and tackle issues that affect
residents’ quality of life, such as anti-social behaviour and nuisance.
We
deal with a variety low-level crimes such as underage drinking and smoking,
cycling on footpaths, fly-tipping and abandoned vehicles and combine
community work and enforcement to address these issues.
We
have been given various powers by the police such as the ability to issue
£50 fixed penalty notices and yellow cards, for a number of offences. The
yellow card scheme acts as an early warning system and involves letters
being sent to the parent/guardian of any young person caught misbehaving.
We aim
to get involved in many community events and to get to know all of the
local residents and build good relationships.
Contact
details for the ACSOs can be found at http://www3.hants.gov.uk/communitysafety/communitysafety-contact.htm
The image is ©Hampshire County Council. Material is
reproduced with the permission of Hampshire County Council.
Report
from the 07/08 AGM
News item added Nov
2008 when removed from home page
 The AGM
went ahead on the
20th May at the village hall. It was a pleasant evening and the business
side of things was dealt with fairly swiftly, with the result that a new
treasurer and 4 committee members were voted in. This left the rest of the
evening free to enjoy the refreshments, chat with neighbours and look at
the collection of photos from the BCA past. Unfortunately there were only
just enough attendees to make the AGM official, which was disappointing
given the effort that had gone into advertising the event.
The
official business included the voting in of a new, more modern constitution,
a review of the past years business and a review of the BCA’s
financial position. 07/08 was a good year for the BCA, there were many
successful events, 3 editions of the newsletter were published, the hall
was used by a variety of people and the lottery continued to raise funds.
The financial review showed that BCA looks to be in a fairly healthy
financial situation. On the downside, the committee lost several members
due to house moves and we appealed for more volunteers to come forward to
get involved. A whole range of roles could be available, so all skills are
welcome. Anyone who has an interest in getting involved is urged to come to
the next committee meeting at the village hall, 7.30pm on Tuesday 10th
June.
The
next AGM will be on the 22nd September 2009. Provisional minutes are
available (111 KB). You will need the free Acrobat Reader to view this file
which is available at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
Developments
in our Area – Latest News (February 2008)
News item added
May 2008
 Old Allotments Development
·
Work has started, the footway, cycleway
and Churchill Way West
are still open.
·
The request for a new footway from the end of Winterthur Way to College Road has been ignored (along
with other points).
·
Complaint to our town MP resulted in a re-iteration of existing
documentation via the Chief Exec. A complaint to the Chief Exec is in
progress, with no response yet. The local government ombudsman has also
been consulted.
Local Development Framework
·
Consultation has been started, there are
some leaflets in the village hall. The sub committee may comment.
Crown Heights
·
Following an assessment by the council of alternative routes it is
now unlikely that the Crown
Heights bridge will close from 11pm – 6am.
·
The sub committee is concerned that the Brambleys
Drive Doctors surgeries were relocated to Crown Heights
with no consultation. There is now poor signage and access from the car p
ark for the mobility impaired.
·
The station to Liquid steps were repaired
and have been vandalised again.
Brook House
·
The latest application for refurbishment into office space and 24
flats has been refused (Council ref BDB/66939)
For further information on local involvement in these
plans look at the Sub Committee pages. Send
any comments to malcolm.macinnes@brookvale.org.uk,
the chair of the Development Sub Committee.
Brookvale’s Scariest House 2007
News item added
January 2008
 33 Queens Road again did Brookvale proud and
welcomed 138 trick or treaters (and that didn’t
include mums and dads!
We have more
pictures of the house.
Disability
Consultations
News item added
November 2007
Chris is seeking views on proposed changes to Church Street,
the centre of Basingstoke and community
transport. For more details see Chris’s page.
Results
of HYLA Competition at the Green Fair
News item added
October 2007
 Following the 'Guess the number
of Smarties lids in the jar' competition at the
'Green Fair', an independent count by local school children was arranged by
Helen Hempstead. The official result was that there were 313 lids in the
jar. The closest guess was 304, by Ms Hollies of Tadley,
and she receives the first prize of a HYLA Water Air Freshener. Runer-up prizes of HYLA kitchen knife sets go to Ms
Whittaker and Mr Green, both from Basingstoke. Further
runner-up prize winners will be notified by telephone. By Ian Morgan, HYLA UK
Brookvale’s Scariest House!
News item added
November 2006
 Many of you will have noticed the spectacular
Halloween display at 33 Queens
Road. The house attracted lots of trick or treaters, Adrian and his family lost count after about
70! Adrian
would like to mention that he put up the decorations Saturday morning, and
apart from bringing in some of the bigger ones each night, not a single
spider, cobweb or grave stone was touched by anyone for the 4 days that
they were out. The family do not trick or treat themselves but prefer
to dress up the house and invite everyone to come to them. They hope
everyone liked the house and had a good time. They would also like to
thank the people that bought sweets to them, It
was a very kind gesture. We have more
pictures of the house on the site for you to see.
Windows
broken at the Village Hall
News item added
on 20th October 2006
Unfortunately several windows at the Village Hall have
been smashed. Despite being caught in the act by a committee member the
Police have been unable to take action yet due to a lack of evidence. The
Committee have been looking at increased security measures for the hall to
prevent damage like this and to help tackle the ongoing problems with
graffiti. This all costs the committee money and effort that we could
otherwise put to better use. We are hoping to apply for a grant to help
with some of the costs. If you have any information on who is responsible
for the damage please can you contact our beat officer, PC Kerr at
Basingstoke Police Station on 0845 0454545. Please report any anti social
behaviour or crime to PC Kerr as she can then apply for more resources for
our area.
Update
on the Victory Hill Development – No more “Digging for Victory” near
Victory Hill
News item added
on 30th July 2006
It would be the end of civilisation should Basingstoke ever stop growing! There's always
something being built or knocked own.
Brookvale has had to fight hard to get the few amenities it has and
was short changed in the redevelopment of the town with most of the new
money being spent on the new estates. Residents had to work very hard to
get the village hall (The use of the word village got us extra funding from
the HCC), the fencing of King George V playing field, the ball wall,
benches, the Victory Green and KGV play areas to name just a few. And
so here again Brookvale is engaged in another fight to improve the quality
of life in REAL terms for old and new residents of the enlarged area of
residents in Brookvale.
Thus we find out too late that at Victory Hill, Rialto provided a high
density flatted development without surrounding amenities. There is no access to Brookvale and Winterthur Way
slope is too steep for Disabled Access.
A patch of grass big enough to site a bench, the Penthouse view and
some kind of artefact appear to be their only amenities!
Next door, the Old Allotment site became vacant in the
70s, partly caused by the post Second World War reconstruction enabling the
growth of supermarkets for vegetable shopping. This resulted in the most fertile soil in
Basingstoke being re-designated as Brownfield Land
for re-development per the Borough consultation in the Basingstoke Area
Local Plan and expressed in the Local Development Framework for Land North
of Churchill Way West.
Due to the ceaseless efforts of our local Councillor
John Shaw BCA came to understand what all the above meant for the
re-development of the Old Allotments site: a horizontal continuous line of
flats from Victory roundabout to the Thorneycroft Roundabout!
John negotiated on behalf of the BCA our influence in
the development as part of the Borough's Statement of Community Involvement
meaning our comments to be considered and incorporated.
This new process meant that the Borough visited the BCA
to share with us their evaluated 30th Jan 2006 5 Developer Tender Proposals
on 8th February 2006. We commented
on these proposals to Cabinet on 28th February 2006 and the Council Leaders
visitted the BCA to hear our concerns on 22nd
March 2006 After
the Cabinet meeting 27th March 2006 proposals were re-tendered to meet
Borough guidelines, the BCA were invited to a Roundtable with the chosen
Developer to comment on this stage of the plans, which we were also able to
take to residents consultation 18th July 2006.
Further comments including some particular to Victory
Hill were listed out, all submitted prior to the David Wilson Homes
Developer Planning Proposal Submission deadline of 24th July 2006. These comments included relationship
with Brookvale/Victory Hill, scale, appearance, access, linkages, social
housing, amenities and infrastructure.
We have not approved these plans as they are lacking in detail when
additional sectional views were requested to understand the visual impact
of this development on the surrounding areas and landscape.
There are also difficult issues that need ongoing
community engagement and attention like a bus stop/bridge/pedestrian
crossing instead of car right hand turn, residents gate between Victory
Hill and Old Allotments to Brookvale, Brook House redevelopment/refurb, Victory Roundabout disabled access, building
sustainable energy saving measures incorporated into this new development
and spending Section 106 money to provide amenity value not mediocre art
, when existing infrastructure
issues will become further exacerbated!
After the deadline, there will be further opportunity
for us to comment and to develop the detail as follows:
* Hall user comments and residents feedback - Chris
Hall
* Energy Saving Sustainable technology Return On
Investment Proposal - Ted Blackmore-Squires
* Open Space Amenities and Design - Malcolm MacInnes
Our thanks to the time and effort our Borough
Councillors and Officers have given the BCA in working with us on this
hopefully prestige and attractive development to the benefit of Brookvale
AND the wider town!
Malcolm
Chair, BCA,
Development Subcommittee
Public
meeting on Crime
News item added
on 9th September 2005
We are pleased to announce a public meeting on crime
and safety.
We have managed to gather together our local beat bobby
(PC Lee Stanbrook), the Hampshire County Council ACSOs (or Accredited Community Safety Officers),
representatives from Basingstoke & Deane’s Community Safety team and
representatives from the Basingstoke Neighbourhood Watch Association.
Each of our guests will give a short presentation on
how they perceive the current situation, and suggest ways in which we can
help.
We hope to establish a Neighbourhood Watch scheme
following this meeting, and it is essential you come along to show your
support. There will be plenty of
opportunities to have your points of view aired, and to have questions
answered.
Please put Wednesday 14th September in your diary now.
The meeting will commence at 7:30pm promptly. Join us at 7:15 for welcome
drinks and nibbles.
Reminders from the July issue of Blurb
Please keep this number for Hampshire Police close to
your telephone, and store it in your mobile phone’s address book: 0845 045
45 45. It
is essential that every incidence of crime or anti-social behaviour is
reported to Hampshire Police. We will not get the resources our area
deserves and requires if crimes are not reported. Even if nothing has
actually been stolen, but there is evidence of a break-in, please report
it. Even if the incident is no longer in progress. You are not wasting
police time by reporting incidents – you could be helping police to collect
intelligence into when these crimes occur and who might be perpetrating
them.
Also, don’t forget to keep an eye out for anyone you
see acting suspiciously, or anyone that shouldn’t be wherever they are –
kids or adults. If you discover kids loitering around the back of your
home, tell them that they are trespassing on private property. If, for
example, you find someone posing as a tradesperson in a neighbour’s back garden when you’re not aware of any work being carried
out, challenge them. Make a note of their vehicle registration numbers. You
never know when information like that might be required by the police.
One thing is for certain; the crime situation has got
worse in recent months and it is up to every single one of us to pull
together to fight it.
Further
development at site west of Victory Hill
News item added
on 9th September 2005
We have been informed by the new Head of Property
Services at Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council, Helen Harbour,
that the council has now completed
its feasibility studies on the land west of the current Victory Hill
development. It’s early days yet, there are no firm plans for any
development at the site yet, but the council is actively looking for
developers who are interested in the site.
They expect to receive tenders back from suitable
developers within the next few months and will then meet with BCA
representatives to discuss the proposals. We will keep you updated with any
information provided to us.
Planning
issues
News item added
on 9th September 2005
Please remember that if you wish to undertake ANY work
to the front of your property, most of the buildings in Brookvale are
covered by the Conservation Order which came into effect in 1999. Work must
be preceeded by an approved planning application.
Contact Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council (844844) for further
information.
Here are a couple of local planning issues you should
be aware of:
Queens Road Post Office
Work had started at Queens Road Post Office to turn
this commercial unit into a residential property. No planning application
had been submitted and so the council advised the owner that permission
would be required before any further development took place. A yellow
planning application poster has suddenly turned up on the door of the old
Post Office!
We strongly believe that this is a commercially viable
unit, and should stay that way. We are rapidly losing the local street
corner businesses that once flourished in our neighbourhood. We urge you
write in to object to the conversion of the old Post Office. You can view
the application on the council’s website at:
www.basingstoke.gov.uk/planning » and following the links to the “Planning
Applications Register”. The application number is BDB/61428. Please write to:
Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council, Development Control, Civic
Offices, London
Road, Basingstoke, RG21 4AH. Don’t forget to quote
the application
number in your letter.
May Street
Building
You may have noticed quite a bit of work taking place
to the old DriveTime building on the corner of
May Street and Lower Brook Street, including new signage for another
business. Whilst we are keen to see this building get a new lease of life
and
encourage new businesses into the area,
it is important to note that no planning application or change of use has
been filed with the council for this development. We are purely concerned
about representing local residents on any change of use. There was some
talk on the grapevine of a business owner opening a bistro/takeaway at this
site. We are concerned that there might be an increase in noise, food
smells, traffic etc. The council is keeping a close eye on this development
and will step in if any breach takes place. We also have the full support
of our local councillors, both for encouraging local businesses into the
area and for ensuring applications are properly filed.
Upcoming enforcement action
Everyone residing in the the
Conservation Area has received a letter from the council, advising that a
major enforcement campaign is about to take place. We would like to stress
the point that the council has the power to force property owners to undo
work that has not had full planning consent. Satellite dishes on front
elevations, replaced walls, windows and doors and
removal of period features will all be
up for scrutiny by the enforcement team. We advise that, if you have
undertaken work without getting prior planning permission, that you file a
retrospective application. Satellite dishes must be relocated so that they
are not visible from the street.
Pride
of Place grants
News item added
on 9th September 2005
A new grant scheme has been announced by the council.
The Pride of Place Partnership Initiative (POPPI) might be able to provide the
Brookvale area with a grant for regeneration. If you have any ideas for
suggestions, we would love to hear from you. please email info@brookvale.org.uk
We will be meeting with council representatives at our
August Committee Meeting to discuss the scheme.
Proposals
to alter Deep Lane
junctions and traffic priorities
News item added
on 9th September 2005
Cllr Doris Jones has advised us that the council has
plans to alter portions of Deep
Lane. We will keep you updated as soon as we
have further information.
Older articles can be found in our News Archive section.
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