Copythorne Parish Council for the communities of • Bartley • Cadnam • Copythorne • Newbridge • Ower • Winsor

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February 2010 Bulletin

Parish Council website
The Council’s new website is now up and running and can be accessed at www.copythorne.org.uk. The site has been designed by a company called TLC Online and will offer the Council new opportunities to communicate with Copythorne residents, local clubs and organisations and the wider world.

The site has been designed to be more user-friendly and easier to browse. The Council’s web group has recently met to discuss additional community content and obviously over time the site will be further developed and improved. In the meantime the Council would welcome any general comments from residents.

There is also the opportunity to promote the activities of the numerous local organisations in the parish. The Council can provide links to other websites (where they exist) or alternatively simply provide contact information. Local groups are asked to contact the Clerk if they would like to have space on the new website.

Splitwind Pond
The Council has now approved a Management Plan for maintenance of the pond in Romsey Road. When costed it is hoped to use the plan as a basis for a grant application to Viridor under their community project scheme. Viridor have a waste management facility near Romsey and can provide financial assistance for qualifying environmental schemes within a ten-mile radius.

Love food, hate waste
UK households are throwing away 8.3m tonnes of food a year, most of which is perfectly edible. A typical family with children bins £680 worth. Equally unsettling is the environmental cost – the wasted water and energy in growing and transporting uneaten food and the methane it produces in landfill.

Send less food to landfill – households should plan meals, manage portions, keep and eye on ‘use by’ dates, and freeze surplus
Compost food waste – over 30% of average household waste could be composted. Peelings and tea bags can be converted into rich food for the garden. Home composting doesn’t starve waste of oxygen so it releases very little of the potent greenhouse gas methane
Recycle food containers – on average the UK resident sends 2000kg of waste to landfill every year. Aluminium cans are one of the most cost effective materials to recycle. Compared to manufacture from scratch around 95% of energy can be saved. 80% of all glass sent to recycling reappears in the UK, mostly as new bottles and jars.

Council tax phone scam warning
New Forest District Council has renewed its call to alert people to a council tax phone scam in which residents are asked to reveal their bank details. This follows a spate of bogus phone calls to homes last November, with more being reported in the last couple of weeks.
The caller claimed to be from NFDC and said council tax refunds were being made due to a rebanding of their property. Residents were asked to provide their bank details to allow refunds to take place. NFDC has stressed it would never ask for these details over the phone and householders are warned not to give out bank details if they receive such a call. Anyone wanting further advice can contact Glenda Chambers, Audit Services, on 023 8028 5789.

Salting and gritting of Hampshire’s roads
Many local residents will have experienced the difficult road conditions caused by the recent bad weather. A letter sent to parish councils by Councillor Ken Thornber, Leader of Hampshire County Council, explains the way HCC have tackled the challenging salting and gritting process. A copy of the letter (PDF) is on the Parish Council website.

Local Policing
November brought good news in that there were no reported burglaries (either dwelling or non-dwelling). Regrettably, things changed in December when there were 2 domestic burglaries (Ower- jewellery and Cadnam - cash, electrical items and car keys) and 2 non-dwelling (farm shed at Winsor – turkeys and Ower – cash and credit card). The most serious incident was a robbery at Bartley Post Office in November but two men were arrested in connection with the incident.

For the two months, there have been a total of 9 thefts in the area. The ones in Copythorne include a drive-off from a petrol station in Ower and a barbeque stolen from an unlocked caged area at the Parish Hall.

Thefts from motor vehicles have also been a particular feature ( a total of 15). Primarily, these have been from cars parked in New Forest car parks or at pubs/restaurants. Handbags and satnavs have been targeted and the Police remind residents not to leave valuables in their cars.

The Police have also attended 23 traffic incidents (8 in November and 15 in December), many involving animal deaths or injury on Forest roads.

The Parish Council
The Council meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at 7 pm in the Copythorne Parish Hall (rear extension). Members of the public are very welcome to attend the meetings and speak on any matter of concern during the first five minutes of the meeting.
Local planning applications are discussed at both full Council and Planning meetings, and the Council welcomes the views of both applicants and neighbours to help formulate a response to the planning authority.

The dates of the next few meetings are: