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Written by Cally Morris on behalf of Silchester Parish Council I would like to start this month by saying a big thank you to everyone who took the time to complete their questionnaires and return them on time to Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council. We managed to achieve a whopping 40% return rate – the highest so far!! Thank you very much. It really does make a difference. The information received will now go towards getting the Parish plan up and running. This is a valuable opportunity for you all to have a say on how you want to see Silchester develop in the future. What services does it need, how can we help life in Silchester be more pleasurable. How can we enhance it? We are looking for volunteers to become involved in the process. If this is something you would like to become involved in then please do let me know. Following our success with “Village of The Year” we are now in possession of a plaque from Calor, the event organisers, to mark the “Communication” category win. We are after suggestions from residents for suitable places to display the plaque. If you have any ideas please do let me know either via email (clerk@silchester.org) or call me on 0118 970 1754. Highways undertook a variety of jobs within Silchester during the summer and managed to tick quite a few of their outstanding jobs off the list. However, there are a few that remain. I can assure you that these will be dealt with in due course. We are on the case so to speak! We are very sad to see the Reading buses have decided to stop the newly introduced Vitality 3 service which travels through Burghfield to Reading. You may have seen an article in the press recently explaining the reasoning behind the service being axed. However, due to customer feedback, the village link service has been expanded to allow people to go to Reading on market days, Wednesday & Fridays. The new link service gives shoppers two and a half hours in Reading to shop on these days. We are also currently investigating the possibility of linking with market days in Newbury and whether this is something people would use. I will keep you updated. The council would like to also say thank you to Mike Loxley for arranging the emptying of the recycling bins at the village hall. It’s great to see that so many of you are using the area to dispose of your batteries, mobile phones, printer cartridges and old CD’s. Keep it up and again, thanks Mike for your help. Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council are reminding people to ensure they have filled out their voter registration form. “Get on the register. Get a say. Get your vote”. Not being on the register of electors may affect your ability to have a say in your local community as well as potentially being turned down for a credit card, mobile phone or loan. You can obtain the information either online at www.basingstoke.gov.uk/voter or by calling BDBC on 01256 845355 Hampshire County Council have written to the council advising that they are offering a subsidy to teenagers to undertake the Pass Plus driving course. Pass Plus is a training course designed by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) with help from insurers and the driving instruction industry that helps new drivers improve their skills and widen their driving experience by dealing with a wide range of road and traffic situations. The course consists of six specifically designed driver training sessions, to develop your skills in, driving in town, driving in all weathers, driving on rural roads, driving at night, driving on dual carriageways and driving on motorways. Hampshire County Council will pay £75 towards the cost of your Pass Plus course directly to your instructor on completion of the 6 modules. You pay the remainder of the fee to the instructor at the beginning of the course. Once you are accepted onto the course you will be sent a list of participating approved Pass Plus instructors. You must use one of the instructors on our list. You must live within the Hampshire County Council local authority area (excludes the City of Southampton, the City of Portsmouth and IOW) to qualify and be aged between 17 and 24 and passed your test within the last 12 months. More details can be obtained via the Hantsweb website on http://www3.hants.gov.uk/roadsafety/safer-driving/young-drivers.html-link Please also remember that you can report and road defect or right of way obstruction via the HCC Hantsweb website. It is a simple system to navigate which scores the report for urgent attention. This system also goes direct to the relevant department which means the issue gets dealt with quicker. Please do have a look at http://www.hants.gov.uk where there is a direct link on the home page highlighted “Do it online”. Next meeting is schedueld for Monday 5th October at 8.00pm in the club room of the village hall.
Hope to see you there
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