Chairman’s Report March 2026

Don’t forget Saturday 21^st March is the date of The Valley Spring Litter Pick. Let’s see if we can beat last year’s turn out number. See page ?? for details of starting points where litter pick sticks, high viz vests and bags will be provided. If you all ready have sticks and vests please bring them and everybody please bring your own gloves. Safety instructions will be given at the start, please follow them and remember at the end there will tea, coffee and cakes provided in Martyr Worthy Village Hall a gallant team of bakers.

While still on the subject of litter it may be remembered that about a year ago the process was stated to have more multi-purpose green bins in the Valley. Selecting suitable sites, consulting with residents and getting agreement of land owners all takes time. It is therefore sad to report that, having finally managed to get the appropriate council officer to see all six proposed sites, all were rejected. The main reason given was there was insufficient evidence of litter. Another good reason to see that we collect a good pile on 21^st March to show there is a need for more bins. Local Government Reform (LGR) may give us more autonomy, funding and the opportunity to do what is needed ourselves.

The latest news on LGR was a recent request at very short notice to express our preference as to whether local elections should be aligned to avoid having elections for different levels of local government at different times. The advantage is fewer election days and potential cost. If there had to be a different election day for the Parish Council the cost (approx £10,000) would have to be paid out of our funds. The only problem with aligning elections is that there would need to be a delay in some to bring them all in line with each other. We have therefore submitted our preference to go for alignment of election dates. Having spoken representatives of a number of Parish Councils, they are also in favour of alignment.

Our County Councillor, one City Councillor and your Parish Council chairman in February were given a second tour of the M3 Junction 9 construction site. Sites might be a better term as work on many aspects of the project is happening simultaneously. We saw the massive steel beams in place for the north bridge of the new roundabout and were able to stand alongside one of the beams for the south bridge awaiting to moved and then craned into place. The question that has been asked frequently is, “why is a new bridge needed?” The answer is that with the new layout M3 and A34 traffic will be going underneath requiring more lanes and hence bridges with a greater span. Please see the photographs on page ?? For residents of Easton the downside to this has once again been diverted traffic taking “short cuts” often using satnav and not following the signs. The result inevitably is a traffic jam. Thank you to the Easton residents who spent a considerable length of time directing traffic. The Parish Council and Jackie Porter have, and still are trying to get measures in place to reduce this problem but there is either no response or a very negative one from the County Council. Also despite the best efforts of the M3J9 contractors and ourselves it has not been possible to make the satnav information providers, eg, GoogleMaps, Waze, Tom Tom, etc block unauthorised diversion routes.

The observant will have seen that the bus shelter opposite the Martyr Worthy War Memorial has gone. It is now in the Mens Shed in Alresford undergoing a major rebuild. Please see the separate article and photo graphs on this “Residents in Action” project on page ??.

See you all at the Litter Pick on 21^st March.

Patrick Appleby, (IVPC Chairman).

Note: Since writing this report the Government has back tracked on changing election dates. How this affects us is not yet clear. When we know more we will let you know.