Tour of Britain Cycle Race to Visit Whitchurch

On 10th September the Tour of Britain cycle race will pass through the Town. The Tour's Route Director has confirmed this information but, as there are still final touches to be put to some other parts of Stage 1 from Reading to Southampton, this news is not even on the events' own website!

Working 4 Whitchurch has plans to make the centre of Whitchurch the place to be around 11.30am to see and enjoy the cyclists as they pass along London Road, London Street, The Square and Church Street en route for Hurstbourne Priors. Flags and bunting will decorate the Town centre and businesses will be arranging special activites. As when the Tour de France visited in 1994, the Town centre roads will be closed so that all can have a good view as the cyclist negotiate The Square's roundabout.

Hampshire Cycle Training plans to run several events along the route including road safety competitions, cycle training and rides on the 9 & 10th.

Town Centre Improvements Funds - SUCCESS

As a result of months of preparation culminating in a presentation to the SEEDA Hampshire Market Towns Panel on 5th June, the Panel voted unanimously in favour of awarding the full £120,000 of matched funding for the Whitchurch Town Centre Improvement Project. This is in addition to £120,000 already committed by B&DBC; and HCC.

Formal notification of the grant is expected to follow within the next few days. This will contain some anticipated recommendations and conditions (mostly minor and mainly related to the Business Support and 'Paint Your Town' elements). Council Officers will be meeting on 15th June to determine the priorities and next steps which inevitably will include further (public) consultation and review as the fine detail of the various elements that make up the bid are specified in more detail.

The four elements of the bid have already been given the thumbs up by the Town (see below) and more information about the projects is here. The detail of the bid has been put together over recent months guided by Tony Corbin, who was the HCC Town Project Officer until the beginning of this year. The reams of supporting paperwork that the bid needed to even be considered for a grant of this size, were painstakingly prepared with particular assistance from Stewart Parrington of Working 4 Whitchurch, Harriet Titcomb and Trustees of the Whitchurch Association, the local authorities and other key bid partners like Business Link. All are to be congratulated on their efforts on behalf of the Town.

Stewart Parrington believes "We've cleared the first fence, thanks to a lot of behind the scenes work, now the real task starts, to turn the grant into things that really improve Whitchurch for all. That will involve a lot of groups working in unison." This is echoed by Harriet, who says "The WA is delighted that the bid was successful and, together with other groups, we all very much look forward to seeing these projects through to their completion".

Art in the Meadow

	The sun shone brightly on the Millennium Meadow on Sunday and allowed local artists to capture the essentials of one of the Town's major assets. In fact it shone so well that several had to head for the shade in Nine Springs Nursery. The results are to be seen here. The results should be seen at the exhibition in the Baptist Church Hall on 23 - 4 June

Nobby Steps Out - Again

Once again Micheldever Road's Nobby Clarke is off on his annual 100 mile walk in the huge international 4 day event at Nijmegen in Holland. This year's sponsorship project is for the Wessex Children's Heart Circle. Sponsorship forms will be found in the local pubs.

Young Gareth Evans of The Broadway is doing the hard bit this year by knocking on all the Town's doors to collect money for this worthy project. Gareth himself was born with major heart defects, his main arteries to his heart being the wrong way round. So please help Nobby raise as much money as possible. He's hoping to beat the £1,500 raised last year for Naomi House!

Letterbox and Catflap Warning

Burglars used a cat flap to break in to a house in Kingsclere. A car and other valuables were stolen after thieves managed to unhook the back door keys through the cat flap to gain entrance to the home.

The burglars also took a mobile phone, a black leather wallet and the car keys. PC Craig Shears of Whitchurch Police Station said: “A lot of the burglaries we are called to have been because people have left windows open or doors unlocked. "However, there are occasions when home owners have locked their doors and windows but burglars still manage to get in by reaching through cat flaps or letter boxes and opening the door from the inside or grabbing keys." Householders should make sure, he continued, that car or house keys were not left near windows, or doors where they could be easily obtained, adding it was also a good idea to try looking at a house from a burglar’s point of view.

"If you were locked out, how would you get in? Has a window been left ajar? Is a door unlocked? Have any valuable items been left on display?" he said. “If you see anyone acting suspiciously outside your house, call the police immediately".

Blue Ginger donates profits to Whitchurch Youth Project

The recent 3 day Indian and Bangladeshi Food Festival was a sell out success with the Blue Ginger Restaurant full on all 3 days. Mohammed Mustak, the restaurant's proprietor, made good his promise to donate any profits to the Mayor's Good Cause on 12th June when he handed over a cheque for £500 to Cllr Steve Robbins for the Whitchurch Youth Project.

Keith Watts, for the Project, thanked Mohammed for the very generous donation and Working 4 Whitchurch, which had worked with the project and the restaurant to make the event the success that it undoubtedly was. The funds will go towards the costs of renting sports facilities at Testbourne for the Project.

Other pictures are here.

Fun Run between the showers

In a sunny break between the showers, 22 runners (and walkers) completed the annual 5km Fun Run. A new winner, Dom Clacy emerged in a time of 17' 40 ".

Minutes before the start, the heavens opened and runners and organisers sheltered under the trees. Luckily, dead on11am, the rains stopped and the smiling runners were ready for the off. In under 18 minutes the winner, Dom Clacy was back, closely followed by the rest of Team Clacy, Ben Ridley, who was the fastest under 16, with a time of just under 20 minutes and, eventually the rest.

A good, if slightly damp, time was had by all and over £150 was raised for the Whitchurch Youth Project. There's more words and pictures here.