The Herbert Collins Estates Residents Association Newsletters

Despite 1300 properties receiving leaflets, only a handful of residents turned up to the meeting with Sgt Strange, PC Sheppard and Police Community Support Officer Joe Averis at Ventnor Court, Leaside Way on 27th April.

Issues raised, included parking on verges in Leaside Way, cycling on pavements, misbehaviour of St George’s boys waiting at bus stops, new fencing around St George’s School, traffic light phasing for a right turn from Stoneham Way into Stoneham Lane, inadequate 30mph signage on Bassett Green Road and the sharp increase in vehicle crime.

Required - a full size Collins four-panel internal door. Please call 07970 748310.

The HCERA Open Gardens Day will be on Sunday 18th May from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm. The charge will be

Now that senior citizens can travel free by bus throughout England, it is an opportune time to look at what is available from Swaythling to begin the journey. Bluestar bus 2 from Stoneham Lane runs every quarter of an hour during the day and half hourly in the evening to Eastleigh Bus Station, very handy for Sainsbury’s, Lidl or The Point, and then goes on to Fairoak. From Eastleigh there are buses, half-hourly during daytime, to Winchester. Less well known is the hourly bus A, which may be boarded in Wide Lane at Walnut Avenue and goes to the Hedge End superstores where it connects with the number 15 to Hamble. The last two A buses leave Eastleigh Bus Station at 21.55 and 23.15. The latter is later than the last number 2 bus.

Don’t forget the hourly number 14 that will take you to Bitterne from the stop in Stoneham Lane.

On Friday 28th March a dining room window was broken at about 12 noon. Three boys loitered on the gravel path in front of the house until they thought no-one was about and then threw the missile, running off in the direction of Leaside way as they did so. The dining room was covered in glass and anyone sitting there would have been hurt. The 3 boys were all white and were not in school uniform. Two were quite young, about 12-13; the other, who threw the stone, was older, possibly 16.

Other residents will appreciate how upsetting this is and we hope anyone who sees this trio, especially during school hours, will keep an eye on them and report any incidents to the police. A good description is very important.

Swaythling Lawn Tennis Club is a small and friendly, LTA affiliated, tennis club tucked away behind the houses in Ethelburt Avenue.
We welcome players of all abilities, from beginners to the more experienced. We also take junior members. The club is always looking for new members wanting to experience playing tennis on grass courts and who are willing to be actively involved in maintaining this rather special amenity right on our doorstep. The new season will start at the beginning of May and further information can be obtained from Sue Green on 8067 1016.

SLTC will be holding its annual sale of plants and homemade cakes on Saturday 10 May at the Club, starting at 1.30 pm. This will also be the Club’s open day, giving non-members the opportunity to come along and have a game for free. All are welcome.

In the January Newsletter, people were asked to share their experiences about building an extension. So here are mine. A builder recommended someone to do the drawings and submit them for Planning and Building Regulations approval. The drawings had to be amended 3 times before I was satisfied. Something which I had entirely overlooked and which the Planning Department insisted upon, was that the new building should not touch the string courses. These are the rows bricks which project slightly from the wall and run just below the upstairs windows. This made it difficult to achieve the minimum roof-pitch needed for the tiles. A problem which emerged during tiling: n rows of tiles had less than the minimum overlap while n+1 rows had more than the maximum. The next question was the choice of builder and I approached various people on the estate who had recently had extensions. It surprised me that some builders were only known by their first name and telephone number. For me, it was a non-starter if the builder’s name and address was not on the estimate.

As with many extensions, the existing manhole for the drains would be under the new extension. I had expected this to be a problem, but providing a new soil pipe with manhole outside the extension went very smoothly and I was able to flush the toilet and use the sink for all but a few hours.

I learnt that it is advantageous to discuss with the Building Inspector what you would like to do, in my case, have a window a little wider than a naive reading of the regulations would permit.

Keeping a close eye on the work can prevent expensive mistakes. Sub-contractors are likely to turn up and get on with the job without being fully briefed: the carpenter and the pitch of the roof, the bricklayer and what happens at the corner. Decisions which I had postponed, suddenly needed to be made: exactly where do you want the power sockets? When finished, the internal dimensions were less than I had anticipated: wall cavities these days are 100mm and not 2 inches and the drywall plastering took up about 40mm.
After a year from concept to completion, I have an extension I am very pleased with.

The builders merchants Elliott Brothers, Millbank Wharf, have a brick library. Their brick rep, Graham Jerrold, tel 07713 267213 will also call to match the bricks of your house.

Since the last Newsletter a planning application (No. 08/00081/FUL) has been submitted for development of the site containing the car park, housing office and youth club at Parkville Road. The developer, Care Capital plc, had been looking at a number of possible sites for a medical centre to replace the doctors’ surgery in Stoneham Lane. The rise in land prices has made it almost impossible to simply build a GP surgery and it needs to be funded by making it part of a larger development. One possibility would have been a modest development on the carpark. However the City Council wants a “gateway building” which will impress people as they enter the city along Stoneham Way. This requires the demolition of the housing office and youth club. The planned building includes an impressive residential tower, a retail outlet, a medical centre, pharmacy and community space. There will be an underground 72 space car park. There will be residential units above the medical centre, but ownership of these will be retained to allow for possible future expansion of the centre.

The housing office will be transferred to the Burgess Road Library building which is going to be upgraded. So far, a suitable site has not been identified for the youth club. A condition is that a replacement for the youth club must be provided. There is concern that this may not materialise. If approved, building work will take about 2 years. Decision day is 29 April.

Make a note in your diary of this not-to-be-missed annual event for residents. Our midsummer party will be held on Saturday 28th June from 3pm. Children’s games, a bouncy castle and a barbecue are planned.