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Join
the Olympicnic
Winchester
City Council, working in partnership with Hampshire County Council, is
planning a large-scale family picnic at North Walls Recreation Ground on the
closing day of the Beijing Games, with large screen action from China showing
during the day and a range of sports and arts 'have-a-go' sessions on offer.
 A specially formed
community drumming group of up to 200 local people will also be coming
together under the professional eye of experts Drumpulse to lead a
Samba-style procession to the Broadway.
They will arrive to see the 2012 Handover Flag hoisted on the front of
Winchester Guildhall in the presence of the Mayor of Winchester, the Leader
of the County Council and other community leaders.
The event, which the City Council is calling The Big Live Your Dream Picnic,
takes its name from the Council's newly approved 2012 Framework.
Sports clubs have been keen to get involved with the family picnic, offering
a range of activities from rugby, football, athletics and netball taster
sessions to goal-shooting inflatables, trainer wanging, a climbing wall and
an orienteering course. Local arts organisations are also being invited to
join the fun, and Hampshire County Council is sponsoring the big screen at
North Walls.
Those wanting to get involved please email liveyourdream@winchester.gov.uk
The 2012 Live Your Dream Framework can be found on www.winchester.gov.uk/liveyourdream
It's
OK to Play!
Children
and young people across the Winchester District are set to enjoy adventure
and fun play in the great outdoors thanks to a hugely successful bid to the
Big Lottery for £200,000.
 Winchester City
Council will be working with the Forestry Commission and other key partners
to deliver the project "It's OK to Play". New bespoke natural play
sites will be developed at four Forestry Commission sites around the District
- West Walk, West Wood, Creech Wood and Micheldever Wood and a new Play
Outreach Worker will be appointed.
The emphasis of these sites will be on natural play and will go some way to
address the lack of play opportunities for children and young people within
rural areas.
Nick Hazlitt from the Forestry Commission said: "By working together we
will be able to provide creative, safe natural environments where youngsters
can explore and enjoy fresh air and exercise, while having lots of fun at the
same time!
"With childhood obesity and inactivity at an all-time high, it's more
important than ever to encourage children to get active and discover the
great outdoors."
BID
on track for town centre improvements
Winchester's Business Improvement District (BID) team is right on track to
bring benefits to Winchester town centre. Winchester City Centre Partnership
has been going full steam ahead to make the city centre a better place for
businesses. Work to date has included:
- removal of over 60 of the
largest graffiti tags
- removal of 200,000 pieces of chewing gum from
the pavements
- providing an additional £9,000 worth of floral displays
- purchased and distributed 100 new high specification
radios for Shopwatch and PubWatch members resulting in increased crime
detection rates
- sponsoring two additional
PCSOs (Police Community Support Officers), doubling the existing
provision
- offering funding to assist
in the creation and installation of a sculptural feature for Parchment
Street
- ongoing work to install
footfall-counting cameras across the city centre, used to measure the
'health' of the city's commercial core.
Chair of
the WDSP and Leader of Winchester City Council, Cllr George Beckett
said: "The Winchester City Centre Partnership board has been
working hard to start delivering outcomes the business community wanted. A
lot of work has taken place to make Winchester a great location for
businesses, and we have plenty more to come!"
More
information about Winchester BID
Winchester
Community Safety Conference
Winchester Community Safety Partnership will be hosting an important
conference at the Intech Centre on Wednesday 26th November 2008 at Intech Science
Centre and Planetarium, Winchester
Crime and disorder is a key issue for many people and organisations
across the district. As a result, this year's conference will focus on one of
the over arching themes within the Community Safety Partnership Plan 2008
-2011 'tackling drugs and alcohol'.
The principle discussion will be based around the four strands of the
National Drug Strategy and how they may impact on the work of the Partnership
at a local level.
Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served
basis. If you are interested in attending please complete a booking form
to reserve your place.
Download the conference
flyer and booking form from the Partnership website. Completed
forms should be to Sarah Drinkwater, using the address provided or via e-mail
to: sdrinkwater@winchester.gov.uk.
Please pass these details on to any interested organisations/groups or individuals
as the Partnership would like to make the event available to as wide an
audience as possible.
If you require further information about this event please contact the
Community Safety Manager, Sandra Tuddenham on 01962 848 132.
Tourism
Summit Inspires Local Businesses
The
recent tourism summit held by Winchester City Council has prompted a string
of ideas for district's new tourism strategy, now under development.
 Over 70 local businesses, City Councillors
and stakeholders signed up for the free meeting in the Guildhall which took
the 2012 Olympics as a starting point for discussions about issues ranging
from transport and green tourism to marketing and skills.
The key speaker was Ken Robinson OBE whose challenging presentation about the
real opportunities afforded by the 2012 Games in London inspired all the
delegates who went on to enjoy a series of lively workshop sessions.
Strategic marketing was a popular subject, and delegates gave thought to the
power of putting a human face to the district, from symbolic figures such as
the Dean of Winchester Cathedral to the celebrity appeal of Colin Firth. They
also suggested new itineraries and campaigns to set Winchester apart from
competitor destinations across Europe at a time when cheap flights continue
to lure UK residents overseas for their short breaks.
Delegates supported the development of the district's green tourism offer,
and enjoyed a proposal by Sian Thomas of Hat Fair to close the city to
traffic completely for a few festive days to enable 'human repair' and
reinforce the environmental message.
Finally, a workshop looking specifically at the potential of 2012 recognised
the importance of local residents as ambassadors and promoters of the visitor
economy.
Delegates felt that a positive image of Winchester would stem from local
pride, and proposed ways to engage and involved the resident community more
in celebrating the district's many charms and attractions.
From
yellow fingers to green fingers
Life
is sweet for Shelley Drayton since she quit smoking recently. Not only is
Shelley healthier, more relaxed and more optimistic, but she's also proud
that she managed to conquer her addiction to cigarettes.
 Shelley, 58, from
Winchester, had been smoking 20-30 cigarettes a day since the age of 15, but
decided she'd just had enough. She went along to the Quit4Life stop smoking
drop-in clinic at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester in
January and hasn't looked back since. She has thrown herself into her new
hobby of gardening as a way of taking her mind off the cravings.
Reducing the numbers of people who smoke in the District is one of the top
priorities of the Health and Wellbeing Strategic Outcome Group.
To get advice on how to stop smoking and to find out about free clinics
available near you, visit: www.quit4life.nhs.uk, call
0845 602 4663 or text QUIT to 60123.
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Short survey...
please complete
We
have put together a short survey to help the WDSP understand what roles you
think it should be performing and what you think it currently achieves, or
needs to improve on.
We would really appreciate your feedback and it won't take long to
complete.
Fill
in the survey
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Increased Housing numbers for Winchester
The
Government recently announced increases in the required housing numbers for
Winchester district, as part of its South East Plan Review.
Winchester is now required to provide 12,740 homes over the next 20 years,
an increase of 500 from the Panel Report figure, and an increase of 2,301
from the original 2006 Draft Plan.
Cllr George Beckett, Leader of Winchester City Council said: "The
Government's decision to increase housing numbers for the Winchester
District has made our job more difficult and amounts to an instruction from
Westminster to build on greenfield land 'to the north of Winchester'.
"Unless other options emerge, that may compel development at Barton
Farm. We are committed to providing a sound framework for local planning
(the Local Development Framework) but these increases will make it harder
to do so without greenfield development".
More information about the Local
Development Framework
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It's ACE
The Adult Education Division of Peter Symonds College is going through a
period of change with Linda Green's retirement in the summer.
ACE will be re-branded under Alex Day, the new Head of Division. New
developments for next year will include hairdressing NVQs to complement the
other NVQs in Childcare, Health and Social Care and Beauty.
There will also be an expansion of the teacher training programme, the
development of new qualifications for administrators and a proposed
Foundation Degree in counselling.
Whilst short community based courses are no longer subsidised by the
Government there is still an exciting range of leisure courses on offer
alongside the employment related courses.
For more information visit http://psc.ac.uk/ace
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Jeremy France Jewellers
Jeremy
France Jewellers, an independent goldsmith and retailer in Winchester, is
being recognised for their professionalism and superb customer service.
They have just won the Winchester Business of The Year Award and, on 17
July 2008, Jeremy is taking the staff to a prestigious awards ceremony in
the Grosvenor Hotel in London where they are finalists for not one, but 3,
National Jewellery Retail Awards!
The store is shortlisted for Independent Retailer of the Year, Retail
Employer of the Year, and one of the designer goldsmiths is a finalist in
the Retail Star category.
Last year Jeremy France won Retail Employer of the Year, and this year they
are hoping to bring at least one trophy back to Winchester with them, if
not all three!
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Have you got an issue you want discussed?
Do
you or your partnership have something which you would like the WDSP to
discuss? Do you have a project to help the deliver the Community Strategy
which needs the support of other organisations? The five strategic outcome
group of the WDSP can help you. Use our online
form to tell us what help you need, and the WDSP will have it on their
agenda at the next available opportunity.
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Looking for funding?
If
you are looking to bring in extra funds into your organisation, don't
forget to search on Open4Community,
the grants website for the Winchester District. Registration is free
and it gives you information on a whole range of local and national grants
available to you.
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Find out what's going on in the WDSP
You
can read the notes and agendas of all WDSP meetings by following the links
on our homepage.
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