Flood Defences & Emergency Plans
HIRA’s forthcoming, free, Public Meeting (details below) has speakers from both the Eastern Solent Coastal Partnership (ESCP) and Havant Borough Council’s Emergency Planning Department. These are crucial topics for everyone living on Hayling. ESCP’s Coastal Engineers will present the latest studies on flooding and coastal management in the region, with particular reference to Hayling’s coasts. Additionally, authors of and those involved with the Council’s Emergency Draft Plan for Hayling Island, which HIRA has already responded to, will speak to how Hayling can comply with the Government’s required Community Resilience. Whether one is simply curious about likely and future coastal flooding, or the least concerned about what exactly is planned in the event that the Island suffers a serious disruption to our lives here, this is one meeting that no-one should miss. Date: Thursday October 19th 7:30 pm at Hayling College.
Postponement of October’s sixth Hayling Infrastructure Advisory Board Meeting in order to ensure that Southern Water will attend and present, is promising, since we have waited for so long to engage with them. HIRA and the Save Our Island group will commence the initial debate with HBC and HCC on the Hayling Island road infrastructure. We expect this process to be intensive and to run through the remainder of the year.
HIRA supported the funding application for a minibus, connecting with the ferry, covering Hayling roads not serviced by commercial buses, and we are very disappointed that funds appear to have been allocated before all bids were in. There is huge community support for this idea and we await Councillors’ active support – not just verbal - to make it happen: we only asked for a share of the Levy budget so that the whole Island benefits.
HIRA complained, along with many others, about the shocking health risks posed by Norse’s removal of the bottle bank at Mengham Car Park and the failure to provide an alternative bottle bank. Tardy collection of bottles and refuse from over-flowing banks, particularly at Hollow Lane and West Town and the bottles piled up in the Mengham Car, puts the community at risk. This went on far too long and it’s astonishing that neither our Councillors nor the Council took earlier action. The Environmental Act 1990 imposes a duty on local authorities to keep clean and free from litter areas for which they are responsible. DEFRA have produced a Code of Practice detailing the duties and responsibilities of a local authority. If the local authority does not fulfil its legislative responsibilities, individuals may seek a Litter Abatement Order from a Magistrates’ Court, and penalties for failing to comply may result. The local authority is ultimately responsible and not Norse the contractor.
Numerous dog walkers report sudden increase in the anti-social failure of a minority to pick up their dog’s excrement. Pooh bags are cheap and easy to obtain online or in pet shops; turned inside out, it takes seconds to collect your dog’s pooh, twist & knot to seal the bag and carry it, either to the nearest bin, or your home waste bin. Why should others have to tread in someone else’s pet’s fouling? If we choose to have pets, we must keep them under control and know where they foul.
Similarly, picnickers and walkers seem to think others will pick up their rubbish. Some of us voluntarily fill our own carrier bags with wind swept rubbish littering our beautiful and increasingly precious green spaces: please politely address those you see littering, and let’s ensure that we all leave no trace!
Contact HIRA: hello@haylingresidentsassociation.co.uk or drop-box at: The Terracotta Pot & Gift Shop, Eastoke; Morris Dibben, Mengham; Library; Hayling Island Community Centre, West Town.
