I’m pleased to report that following all the hard work on questionnaires, workshops and consultation, the Marchwood Community Plan will be published by the end of August and distributed to all households in Marchwood during September.

It will also be available to view from the end of August on the community plan page of the Parish Council web site. My sincere thanks to every one of you that have been involved in this process and I look forward to now turning my attention to working with colleagues in District and County authorities to begin delivering positive outcomes against the priorities identified in the plan.

We are pleased to report a number of positive early starts have begun in response to some of our key action priorities:

- The flood defence question at Marchwood Yacht Club and Admiralty Quay at last looks to be moving forward strongly and we anticipate a positive decision by District Councillors in October, followed by the construction work necessary to conclude this issue taking place during the first half of next year.

- In parallel to this subject, we are also working with colleagues to bring to a conclusion the outstanding adoption and ongoing maintenance questions surrounding the Admiralty Quay development.

- Representations by the Parish Council, strongly backed up by letters to Southern Water from the pupils at Marchwood Junior School have resulted in positive action to address the bad smells that sometimes come from the Waste Water Treatment Works. The company have responded very positively and invested significantly during this year to improve key aspects of their plant operation. It is anticipated that the benefits from this work will be fully noticeable by Marchwood residents from September onwards.

- The project to re-establish the Youth Facilities project has been kick started and the consultation process has begun to identify exactly what kind of facilities are required. This included discussions taking place with representatives of the Scouts and Guides, as well as a young peoples workshop that was held in the Village hall during August to hear first hand exactly what it is that makes a good youth facility.

- The proposal for a lorry ban in the village centre has recently been rejected by the County Council. However this will not stop this initiative being raised again as action against plan priorities gathers momentum. Supported by 125 petition letters signed by Marchwood residents, this issue remains a top Community Plan action priority.

- Early discussions have also begun in response to other project priorities relating to the Husbands Shipyard re-development; the Business Waste recycling pilot project; Affordable Housing; Crime, Vandalism and Graffiti reduction, the Open Space development project and the important Twiggs Lane junction/congestion issue.

So some progress has already begun to deliver positive outcomes against our Community Plan priorities and I look forward to reporting on more of our achievements in the next issue of the Village News.

Alan Stevens, Community Plan Co-ordinator.

Support for the Community Plan priority to ban lorries from the Village Centre is growing!
(Following article appeared in Commercial Motor Magazine during July)

A Southampton haulage company has sided with villagers angered by trucks using a route near a school - it says a ban should be introduced. Villagers in Marchwood have been told by Hampshire County Council (HCC) that too few LGVs are using Hythe Road to justify restricting their movements.

A survey by the HCC traffic management group found 90% of trucks used Jacobs Gutter Lane to reach the A326, rather than Hythe Road it therefore recommended no action.The long-running feud between residents and businesses running trucks out of the nearby Marchwood Industrial Estate has led to calls for LGVs to be banned from Hythe Road.

John Leath,transport manager for Southampton Container Logistic,which is based on the estate, says a ban should be enforced regardless of the number of truck movements: “I live in Marchwood my wife works in the school. As far as I’m concerned, Jacobs Gutter Lane is the only arterial route to use to get into Marchwood. The other side of it, from the Hythe direction, takes you back through the school, which I wouldn’t condone.”

Dominic McGrath from the HCC traffic management group says: “It was a recommendation, not a decision. We were looking at it in terms of traffic generation, rather than in terms of traffic conditions along the stretch of road”. The council did introduce restrictions for most of the village about two years ago. Whether to include Hythe Road within those was discussed at the time. The decision was it wasn’t appropriate within the wider restrictions.”