September 2017

11 September 2017

Good news for Fareham shoppers

We are pleased to announce that Fareham Shopping Centre is close to agreeing terms with a new store to move into the former BHS unit.

BHS closed its Fareham store last year after the chain went into administration. It’s expected the new retailer will be ready in time for the Christmas shopping period.

A number of improvements have been made to the Shopping Centre to make it more appealing to customers and retailers, including enhancing the internal décor with new lighting and redecoration.

Executive Leader of Fareham Borough Council, Conservative Councillor Seán Woodward, said: “The Council has been working proactively with the Shopping Centre owners to continue to provide a good mix of shops for visitors to the town. I’m delighted that major high street chains, such as Boots, have renewed their long term commitment to Fareham, and also that we will soon be seeing new occupants of the former BHS site – it is great news for shoppers and businesses alike in Fareham.”

Chris Beckerman, Managing Director of Roubaix Group, which owns Fareham Shopping Centre, said: “Since we acquired the centre two years ago, we have been working hard to ensure that there is a vibrant mix of retailers for our customers, and have made a number of improvements in and around the centre to improve the visitor experience. Fareham is a great town, and we are very pleased to be working closely with the Council to bring forward a range of further improvements in the coming months”.

A further announcement about the new store is expected by the end of this month.

The news comes as figures show Fareham Town centre as a whole continues to perform well and its vacancy rate (the number of empty shops) is below the national average.

ENDS

 

08 September 2017

New Fareham to Alderney air link on the cards

Fareham Borough Council is excited to announce talks are underway about bringing the first scheduled passenger flights to Solent Airport at Daedalus.

Regional and City Airports are working closely with Air Alderney to progress this exciting proposal which seeks to create a daily service from the Channel Islands to Solent Airport.

The announcement comes in the Airport’s centenary year.

Executive Leader of Fareham Borough Council, Conservative Councillor Seán Woodward, said: “This could be great news for both Solent Airport and for Fareham. Already a thriving airport for private flyers and an increasing number of business people, establishing a scheduled passenger service will open the Airport up to a whole new range of customers, whilst Fareham will benefit from more visitors coming to the town.”

If the plans go ahead passengers will be able to board an eight seater Islander plane to take them to the island of Alderney. The manufacturer of the planes, Britten Norman, is actually based at Solent Airport from where the Islander aircraft has operated from for many years.

Danny Wilson, Air Alderney, said: “We are looking forward to working with Solent Airport to get this exciting idea off the ground!”

A decision on the new air service is expected in the next few months.

ENDS

 

04 September 2017

Welborne Healthcare Provision

Residents of the new Welborne Garden Village will have a health and wellbeing hub on their doorstep within Welborne – that’s the message from Fareham Borough Council and lead NHS commissioner for Welborne, Fareham and Gosport Clinical Commissioning Group, after a recent productive meeting to agree how the authorities would work together.

Hampshire CCG Partnership Chief Executive Maggie MacIsaac and Chairman Dr David Chilvers met with Fareham Borough Council Executive Leader Councillor Seán Woodward and Chief Executive Officer Peter Grimwood to begin planning health and wellbeing services for the proposed new community of Welborne.

On the agenda for both sides was the growing demand for health services, the difficulty of recruiting new GPs and the innovative ways that technology could be used to help people better manage their own health and communicate with health professionals. Fareham is already one of the areas pioneering web consultations for GPs and a new ‘Same Day’ GP service will be available to 40,000 local people in the autumn to help manage the demands on local GP practices and cut waiting times for patients.

Dr David Chilvers, Chairman of the governing board for Fareham and Gosport CCG, said: “The CCG is committed to ensuring local people have a range of high quality, local health services to meet their needs. New technology, an ageing population and a shortage of GPs means that we have to change the way that care is provided in the future to ensure that we can deliver that commitment.

“We know that the way healthcare is delivered is changing so this is a fantastic opportunity to work with Fareham Borough Council and other partners to plan a hub which gives the future Welborne residents the best possible health and wellbeing support.”

Conservative Councillor Seán Woodward said “I am delighted that we have agreed a way forward with the CCG that will bring a health and wellbeing hub to Welborne. There are some exciting opportunities to develop innovative, hi-tech solutions in Welborne which we hope will be attractive to new residents.

“We now expect to forge a strong partnership so that we can work together over the life of the development to get the right health services as the population grows.  We want to achieve this in partnership and consultation with local people and will be holding special Community Action Team meetings with our CCG colleagues to gain people’s views on what I know will be an exciting, healthy future for Fareham.”

ENDS

 

1 September 2017

Have your say on our draft Corporate Strategy

Fareham Borough Council has created a new draft Corporate Strategy and we want to hear residents’ views on it.

The Corporate Strategy sets out the Council’s priorities for the next five years and how we plan to achieve them. The main priorities are as follows:

  • providing housing choices
  • protect and enhance the environment
  • strong, safe, inclusive and healthy communities
  • maintain and extend prosperity
  • leisure opportunities for health and fun
  • dynamic, prudent and progressive council

We would like to know which priority is the most important to you. You can also tell us if you think we’ve missed something important. A consultation event where you can have your say will take place on Tuesday 5 September, 3 – 7pm, at Ferneham Hall.

Executive Leader of Fareham Borough Council, Conservative Councillor Seán Woodward, said: “The Corporate Strategy is an important document laying out the Council’s agenda up to 2023 and we need your help to make sure we are heading in the right direction. I would urge everyone to come along to this consultation event. It is a great opportunity to share ideas and work together for the benefit of the Borough’s future.”

ENDS

Local Issues