NEWSLETTER

May 2010

From the Chair

We have had an interesting group of talks this year, all well attended. We had to change our start time from 7pm to 7.30pm, to please the authorities in the Discovery Centre – still the Library to me!  I have had complaints about the crowding at the Library on two occasions; this is a recurring problem as there is a great shortage of suitably-sized halls in Gosport.   Previously, we successfully used St Vincent’s but it was heavily booked and we were eventually turned out in favour of drama classes. The new Christ Church hall is too small – and so we go on.

The Committee were invited by Our Enterprise, the new owners of Haslar, to look at their plans and proposals.  Slides were shown and then we had a good look round, guided by our own David Read who was Site Engineer 1985-1989.  We were all pleased and impressed with their ideas, basically keeping the vast majority of the existing buildings and finding sensible uses for them.  The site is not to be a large housing estate, which would be our worst nightmare.  If the Veterans’ Village becomes a reality, medical cover would be necessary and the owners hope to enlarge on this for local people as well.  We can all hope!   We were delighted to have the plans for the first change of usage: the Senior Rates Mess and another building are to be used for student accommodation for Portsmouth University.  A good start.

Equally pleasing have been applications for the dredging of the marine approach routes to Priddys Hard and for a new pontoon which will enable the Water Bus to work at last!  More visitors for Explosion! Museum, perhaps?

I attended the Waterside meeting to garner views on its future.  I was rather disappointed: nothing much seemed to come out of the various small groups into which we were split, except for the universal unpopularity of the bus station as it is now.  Some of the ideas were, I thought, crazy.

The Society has backed the Council in its desire to get the old ARP Shelter and Centre in The Avenue scheduled; there are probably only about three others left in the country.

The flowerbed outside Morrisons’ supermarket has been sponsored by the Society to celebrate our 40^th anniversary (see Lesley Burton’s article on page 7).  We have also sponsored a pipe for the new organ in Holy Trinity Church.   Paul Hutton-Dunton has been looking into the possibility of getting the clock going on the old guardhouse at St George Barracks, with the Society sponsoring one of the faces.   He has worked hard on this project and has been helped by Rob Harper, the Council’s Conservation Officer.  We hope that Berkeley Homes will also be supportive.

Paul is also on the committee running Heritage Week and has been to several meetings already. Lesley Burton has offered to do three walks for Heritage Week, covering i) from Jacky Spencer bridge to Walpole Park via Gosport Park; ii) From Pier Street (Lee-on-Solent) to Milvil Road via the sea front and Le Breton farm; iii) Stokes Bay and Stanley Park.  Walks will proceed at a gentle pace from 11.00 to 13.00.

As you all know, the Committee has been working on the Constitution, a page at a time, and the new version was approved unanimously at the Special General Meeting which preceded our talk on 21^st April.  All new members will be provided with a copy on joining.

The Civic Trust, to which the Society was affiliated for many years, has now folded and we are being asked to join its replacement, Civic Voice, which will be a national “umbrella” organisation for all local societies.  Roger Mawby’s explanation of the current position is at page 6 below.

On the social side, our party in January was a great success, attended by 70+ people on a very cold, snowy night.  As ever, many thanks to Doreen and Brian Pladdys and their family.  We all look forward now to our coach trip in June to Hampton Court.

                                                                                                                                  Adrian Knight

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