Winter Borough News 2022 - Top stories

Eastleigh lights up for Christmas

Festive events in the town centre

Eastleigh’s Christmas lights switch-on will mark the start of the festive season again in traditional style, with a whole host of activities and events to get everyone in the Christmas spirit.

On Saturday 19 November, Eastleigh town centre will become a festive hive of activity, starting at 11am through to Santa himself switching on the lights at 6pm - with festivities carrying on until 7pm.

The Borough Council team are building on the successful formula from last year, with The Point, Eastleigh hosting Santa’s Grotto. So bring your Christmas lists and get ready to meet Santa - all the children on the ‘nice’ list will receive a small gift. This year Santa is staying with us for Sunday as well! There will be a few other surprises awaiting you at The Point, with a dress-up station and some family activities to enjoy.

Book tickets in advance to secure your meeting with Father Christmas!

There will also be a great variety of stalls selling the perfect Christmas gift, from our charity and local business stalls in the High Street and Market Street, through to our Christmas Market in Leigh Road precinct and on to our new Sorting Office Makers Market, inside The Point offering unique, bespoke items to give to loved ones.

Other fun activities include a mini petting zoo, festive stilt walkers wandering the streets, and our local buskers and bands to keep the family entertained before the main event.

We will again be joined by Stevens Funfair with a range of their family-favourite rides.

As the town gears up for the big switch-on, there will be special

guests at the Bandstand in the Leigh Road Recreation Ground ready to help with the countdown to Santa pressing the button. This year, we are returning to traditional fireworks but with some added flames and sparks - so watch out, as it is going to be loud!

The party continues afterwards, with music on the park, the fair and market open until 7pm and the town centre’s restaurants, pubs and leisure attractions are a great way to round off the day.

In line with the rise in energy costs, we will be reducing the amount of time that the Christmas lights are on for during the festive season.

For more details visit: eastleigh.gov.uk/christmas

Book Father Christmas: eastleigh.gov.uk/christmasgrotto

Request a tree on your street

Hampshire Country Council are asking residents to suggest locations for roadside tree planting.

This could be on your road, outside your house or any other suitable highway location. We will endeavour to accommodate all tree planting requests, if appropriate.

The County Council, who manage highways in the Borough, have said they will try to accommodate all suitable tree planting requests, subject to an approval process.

Find out more: hants.gov.uk/transport/roadmaintenance/ roadproblems/tree-planting

Plant Eastleigh is back

Three more tree planting days planned at Itchen Valley early next year

Residents are being offered the chance to sponsor a new tree in the Borough as Plant Eastleigh returns for a second year.

People will be able to plant a tree for £10 on one of three tree planting days to be held at Itchen Valley Country Park. The planting days take place on 14 and 28 January and 11 February, between 10am and 2pm.

The tree will be whips (young, single stem trees) from the Council-run tree nursery in Horton Heath. They will be planted alongside others to expand an area of native woodland, providing habitats for local wildlife.

Cabinet Lead for the Environment, Cllr Rupert Kyrle, said: “Over 170 trees were planted during the last two Plant Eastleigh planting days at Itchen Valley Country Park, so I’m pleased to see this initiative return for a second year. We aim to have 160,000 more trees in the Borough by the year 2030 and tree planting days like these are just one way we want to achieve this.”

Find out more: planteastleigh.co.uk

First residents move into Bandstand Court

Eastleigh Borough Council’s flagship development of apartments for rent in Eastleigh town centre welcomed its first residents in September.

Bandstand Court offers 49 one- and two-bedroom flats that have now been fully let by Leaf Homes, the Council’s new specialist residential lettings service. Leaf’s marketing efforts ensured that all the units in Bandstand Court were already let during the final stages of construction. The apartments are let at a market rent and the Council retains ownership.

The apartments - on Romsey Road, overlooking the Leigh Road Recreation Ground, which has the town’s bandstand at its centre - offer a town centre living experience, with Eastleigh’s shops, restaurants, leisure facilities and other amenities within easy reach.

The landmark building housing the apartments has a number of sustainable features, including a heat recovery system for each flat, solar panels, a bicycle store and a good energy performance score.

Prominent local charities, One Community and Age Concern will occupy premises on the ground floor.

Council Leader, Cllr Keith House, said: “It is great news that Bandstand Court is now fully let and has welcomed its first tenants. As both developer and lettings agent for the properties the Council is in a unique position to focus on the long-term experience for our tenants, rather than short-term profits. This allows us to help people find high quality accommodation that enables healthy, prosperous and sustainable lifestyles at the heart of the community.”

Royal Yachting Association benefits from energy grant

One of our local businesses shares details of its energy efficiency scheme and the contribution that the Council’s energy grant has made

The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) began its environmental sustainability journey 17 years ago, providing best practice advice to boat users and businesses through The Green Blue, a programme run jointly with British Marine.

In 2018, the association realised it could do more with its own operations and appointed Phil Horton as Environment and Sustainability Manager.

In 2020, the RYA created a sustainability strategy recognising its three potential areas of impact:

• those within the control of the RYA - buildings and staff

• those managed by the RYA - British Sailing Team, pension funds, Dinghy Show

• those that can be influenced by the RYA - 100,000 members, 1,400 affiliated clubs, 2,500 training centres in 57 countries

Sustainability for the RYA means environmental, social and economic value.

With the help of the Council’s energy grant, improvements made so far include:

• LED lighting in Hamble HQ (this change has lowered emissions and reduced the cost of lighting by 75%)

• Plug-in hybrid vehicles for towing two- tonne RIBs

• LED lighting at Portland House. This upgrade is partfunded by the EmPAHSIS3 project run through Portsmouth University

• solar roof installation – the grant contributed 25% of the cost to this - currently at the grid application stage though solar panels have been secured via installer.

Though the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Sports for Climate Action framework has a goal of carbon neutrality by 2040, the RYA has taken the plunge and is aiming to reach net zero by 2030.

Its first Carbon Report is in preparation and measures improvements from a baseline of 2019 when its emissions were 5,700 tonnes of CO2e. COVID helped these to decrease by 50% in 2020 and a respectable 20% decrease was reported in 2021.