Chair’s report to Alresford Town Partnership AGM on Monday 15 September 2008

I would like to begin by paying warm tribute to all that my predecessor as Chair, Ken Yeldham, put in place, because what he achieved has enabled us to move forward in a number of areas in the past twelve months.

We were able to establish a Constitution in our AGM a year ago. That has not only given us a clear framework for operation but it is also essential for wider recognition of us a voluntary organisation. The existence of the Constitution has in turn enabled us to open a bank account, an essential feature for receiving grants, and Barbara Jeffs has very kindly been our Treasurer through that process and beyond.

Our three Working Groups have continued to address the local needs embodied in their titles: the Housing Group chaired by David Goodman, the Parking and Transport Group chaired by Jackie Porter and the Children and Young People’s Task Group chaired by Stuart McCullouch. We shall be hearing from each of these groups separately.

A very large piece of local research, called the Healthcheck, was already well underway a year ago, and we were able to complete it this past summer. The template for it gave us a very large number of questions to answer. The pleasant fruit of that, now that the task is completed, is that we are the official source of one of the weightiest pieces of research that have been done about Alresford. That gives us some added knowledge capital which is, and will be, helpful in the ongoing discussions about the future of Alresford and the surrounding area.

A major project for the Partnership in this past year has been ‘The Putting Pedestrians First Project’, focused on the improvement of accessibility to the town, outworked through the provision of a new car park and a new footpath running through Perins School. This has been a wonderful opportunity taken for the organisations and people connected with Alresford to work together to address the choking of the town centre by long-term car parking in what are short-term parking spaces. It is understandable that the idea of a car park or a footpath replacing green grass seems an unwelcome prospect for some neighbours close by, and we hope that they will be able to see the benefit that these changes will bring to the community as a whole.

In terms of timing, we hope that everything will be in place for the work to be started in December or January. Our overall budget is £224,795. Towards this, the main contributions are £111,000 of SEEDA Small Rural Towns Development Funding, £50,000 from Winchester City Council, £57,000 of developer funding and £6,000 from local businesses (£5,000 of that coming from the Watercress Line and £1,000 from the Chamber of Commerce). These sums will not be passing through our bank account but will be administered by Winchester City Council. The task of working out the details of the parking arrangements have been passed to New Alresford Town Council, working in conjunction with Winchester City Council. Our Parking and Transport Group will continue to monitor the project and its impact, and it will report regularly on this at our quarterly General Meetings.

An unfinished piece of research has been what we have called the ‘GiveUs5 questionnaire’. This invited local people to give us five priorities for the town out of a list of twenty-five derived from the Healthcheck and other research, plus the opportunity to name a 26th priority which we had not listed. Just over 200 have been completed and returned to us, a good number in one sense but not large enough to be statistically valid as representative of community wishes. We are holding the questionnaire open for a little longer as I have hopes of gaining at least some more returns in the coming weeks, maybe even from a few people attending the AGM. I plan to report formally on this questionnaire at our next General Meeting, in November.

In consultation with the Police, we agreed to discuss local policing matters under the heading of ‘Safer Neighbourhoods’ for the General Meetings running up to and including this AGM. We obviously appreciate the extra contact this has given us with the police, but we will be discussing this evening whether we wish to continue this contact under the Safer Neighbourhoods umbrella.

We have welcomed the advent of the Greening Campaign in Alresford. This was part of our agenda at our most recent General Meeting, in May. We look forward to a brief update from them in November, and beyond that we propose to continue to convey our interest and support for the organisation.

It has been a pleasure to work with other people and organisations in the town, both in and beyond the Steering Committee, whom I would like to thank collectively. There is much goodwill in the town, and it has been very encouraging to see that in practice. Alresford Society kindly allowed us to exhibit with them in the Community Centre at the time of the Watercress Festival. Protocol prevents me from naming anyone, but I am also very grateful for the support we have had from councillors and officers in Hampshire County Council and Winchester City Council.

We continue to work on the project of creating a plaque to John Arlott. The red tape associated with such a matter has been remarkable, but we currently hope to have this achieved in November.

Another ongoing matter is the Winchester Local Development Framework. We have contributed to the consultations on this and will continue to do so. The existence of this process requires our serious attention, even though other matters will no doubt compete for that in the coming year.

We are grateful to Jim King for encouraging us to consider how we can advertise our existence better to local people, and we hope you will see the outworking of that in the coming months.

I will conclude by adding my public thanks to our Administrator Sarah Coe and the personal reflection that it has been a great pleasure to be Chair of Alresford Town Partnership in this eventful year. Being Chair has increased my own appreciation of the town and of the many capable people who serve us in a professional or voluntary capacity.

Nigel Paterson, 15 September 2008