avnec meeting yesterday

I went to the AVNEC meeting yesterday at Belmont hall on the Velmore estate, there were representatives from the council and 'FIRST WESSEX' the housing assoc , the police , the school, the nursery, the council countryside team and the resident associations.

The Agenda was basically little issues relating to the estate , like some bushes were 'overgrown'
et cetera . The police sergeant talked about the latest crime in the area, gave out some leaflets about how you can now search an online map from the station and find out about the latest anti-social behavour , he was accompanied by two PCSOs who gave updates about how many people still leave their car unlocked with bags in it.

The guy from Velmore res assoc said he thought there was too much shoplifting in the co-op - I think the policeman was thinking 'thats between me and the co-op buddy'
He is trying to get a no cold-calling zone created , he needs 66% of residents to agree . The police are going to help him canvas residents by ......cold calling residents.

The Lady from 'One Community' was warning us about the TV 'switch over' she said 'there is nothing worse than an old person alone in a house being left without a working television , it really would be awful'

The lady from the Aviary residents association said she heard gunshots in the woods on saturday afternoon and there were kids on motorbikes in the fields again, she didn't think either were allowed.

Another lady from another resident association talked about the boggy football pitch , and the behaviour of local kids, the council representative ,Guy , said the kids only get the drainage sorted if they behave themselves and there is no more ASB , the police agreed .

I tried to talk when everyone else had finished about an alternative plan to the Council's house building frenzy , the loss of faith in institutions the excluded generations, the uncertainty in food and fuel the inevitable social unrest as a result of the gap between rich and poor the fraud in our economy the lies from our leaders and the media and the impacts of 'austerity' on our lives ,everyone started putting thier coats on ,

these meetings are not the place for such dialogue.

Abbe Reynaud the french encylopede in his letter to the convention just before the september massacres when 1000's were slaughtered in the streets said they were all laughing and dancing on the edge of an abyss, our community groups are just politely requesting that a litter bin is moved 20 yards up the street ,on the edge of an abyss.

RESPONSE to Comments 8/12/2011

The Sergeants name was Sean I think, and we chatted outside for a while, he was somewhat conducive to a discussion of longer term issues and said it might need 4 hours down the pub.

it seems experienced police officers understand the impact of a gradual urbanization of Eastleigh , much denser housing and much fewer job opportunities will inevitably lead to a worsened level and nature of crime in the area. Perhaps some of them have worked in other areas , London, Portsmouth or Southampton perhaps.

Police numbers like schools are unlikely to dissuede the planners , they will just say ,when required we will build another school or expand the police.The problem with this 'just in time' local amenity provision is that they will not allow existing residents to have comfortable class sizes or police numbers  ,it will be 'just too late' .My daughters class is 28 (the max is 30) this is far from optimal ;

the numbers of police have probably fallen over the last 10 years whilst all the new developments have gone up , they will not recruit significantly more police until there are real quantifiable (desperate) problems. In both of these cases I fear you will lose communities and then be struggling to get them back , and in that time policemen and teachers will be overworked and worn down.

Of course by the time they build a new school or recruit 10 more coppers we will be ready for another school and another 10 , it is as if the backlog of the housing need list transfers into every corner of social provision ,so just as providing the housing 'somehow' makes the list gets bigger , providing the schools and police 'somehow' makes the need greater. It is the Time Lag involved with providing services years too late that makes it appear that increased provision increases the numbers 'waiting'.

Whatever the real numbers of 'housing need' planners should have dealt with them years ago, by PLANNING , their 'plans' now are playing catch-up so if they build 10,000 houses before 2029 they will inevitably be creating the need for another 10,000 houses between 2029 and 2050.

This is a senseless rush to over-develop the area and it does not benefit existing residents , it is the PUSH strategy which has demonstrably failed, as the old fella said in the meeting 'I'll be in a box by then', local groups and the feedback institutions get is under-represented by the 20-50 age group , the 50-90 age group seem to care about immediate issues like dog mess and overhanging branches , which is fine (I tend to pick it up or chop it down which is not so easy for them) perhaps it is not the age of the person involved, but thier outlook which makes them focus only on minor issues ,it as if they think it is rude to criticise council plans, when I tried to talk about this stuff they acted like I had suggested the AVNEC committee design and build a rocket ship and colonise Mars ! 

The 70-80 year olds do not think they will live to 100-110 but they might, who is planning for that success ?

I think Eastleigh should have a moratorium on new housing estates until our institutions provision of Schools , Police , Doctors , Roads ,Care homes, Utilities, et cetera is adequate or even  comfortable, instead of being happy that everything is constantly at breaking point, it is existing residents whose quality of life is declining because of the constant expansion of numbers and as we are the voters we can stop it. Remember over-development of the South-East just steals a renaissance from the North.

It seems we are meant to work our whole lives away to buy a cottage in Sherfield English if we want a continued quality of life - more fool you if you are happy with your lot !