New Milton Advertiser 16th Oct 2020

10 · Friday 16th October 2020

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Town high street charges plan is parked until 2021

town council stressed it would continue to liaise with HCC. “We remain opposed to the original parking meter scheme,” said the spokesperson. “Any parking system that is created must be of benefit to the High Street.” HCC had said on-street parking enforcement must pay its way and free up money for road maintenance as it seeks to make £80m of spending cuts by 2021. NFDC will retain respon- sibility for its public car parks. Cllr Jack Davies urged HCC to drop the scheme alto- gether, pointing to the ad- ministrators being called in by high street fashion chain Edinburgh Woollen Mill, which owns a shop in the town, as well as Pea- cocks and Jaeger. A com- bined 24,000 jobs nationally are reportedly in the balance. “My heart goes out to the local people whose jobs are at risk,” Cllr Davies said. “This is an example of why the planned parking charges for Lymington High Street make no sense. “The county council must scrap the planned parking charges for Lymington High Street to prevent more misery.”

Opponents cheer decision to shelve controversial scheme

Sailor Jeanne wins Brave Britons award Jeanne Socrates said she was ‘absolutely staggered’ to win the award (Photo: James Holkko)

BY LIZ HENDRIE

TRADERS shoppers breathed a sigh of relief after it was announced plans for park- ing meters on Lymington’s high street have been shelved. After taking back responsi- bility for traffic management from the district council earlier this year, Hampshire County Council announced it would re- duce the current one-hour free parking to 30 minutes, with two hours chargeable. The move was rejected by Lymington and Pennington Town Council and NFDC’s cabinet member for econom- ic development, Cllr Michael Harris – and the county council has now confirmed plans are on hold until next year. Opponents argued that in light of the adverse effect the pandemic was already having on businesses, charges would damage the local economy fur- ther. and AN ANGUS cow was killed on the B3078 at Claypit at around 7.45pm last Tuesday in the only accident involving a common- ers animal reported to the ver- derers last week. Meanwhile the next pony drifts will be held at Stoney Cross today (Friday) and in the Furzey Lodge and Beaulieu Aer- odrome area on Sunday. Fur- ther round-ups are due to take place at Pond Head on Tuesday and at Amberwood and Turf Hill on Friday 23rd October. Organised by the agisters and

A RECORD-BREAKING Lym- ington yachtswoman who be- came the oldest person to sail around the world single-hand- edly has won a prestigious award for her “bravery and en- deavour”. Jeanne Socrates (78) com- pleted the non-stop 25,000-mile voyage on board her vessel Nereida, setting off from Victo- ria, Ontario, Canada, in Octo- ber 2018 and returning there in September last year. A virtual ceremony hosted by BBC Breakfast presenter Rachel Burden saw the former maths teacher crowned the Am- plifon Awards for Brave Britons 2020 Active Agers champion. Jeanne, who joined the cere- mony on Zoom while on a trip to Australia, said: “Winning this award is fantastic. I am abso- lutely staggered and feel very humbled. “During my four round-the- world sailings I have made some amazing friends. “I have had to stay in Aus- tralia a few months because of coronavirus but I now want to get back to my boat in Canada. After my record-breaking sail it needs a lot of repair work carry- ing out and then I can go sailing again.” Her 339-day feat broke a re- cord previously held by Minoru Saito, who completed a 233-day unbroken solo lap of the world

in 2005 when he was 71 years old. The judges hailed Jeanne’s achievements, which came af- ter the death of her husband George with whom she had learned to sail when the couple were in their 50s. “At a time of life when people of her tender years are expected to be taking it easy Jeanne went into turbo charge!” the judges said. “She was chosen as the win- ner for her bravery and en- deavour by sailing 25,000 miles around the world single-hand- edly, not only once, but three times. “And on her last voyage she broke the world record for be- ing the oldest person to achieve the challenge.” The awards, now in their fifth year, were launched by glob- al-hearing specialist Amplifon to celebrate truly remarkable people and pets. They are in honour of the company’s found- er, Second World War hero Ma- jor Charles Holland. Major Holland was awarded both the MBE and the Military Cross and received the Bronze Star from the United States government in 1948 for bravery behind enemy lines. His dedication after the war to providing better hearing for people affected by the conflict led to Amplifon’s launch in 1950.

Lymington High Street is one of the most thriving in the district, says Cllr Anne Corbridge (inset)

trict and it’s sad that it could diminish.” Announcing the decision, a town council spokesperson said: “The impact on the retail and hospitality sector, often the main businesses within town

centres, is understood by the county council, and it is recog- nised that many areas will re- quire some time to recover and re-establish themselves.” The position is due to be re- viewed next summer, and the

Town mayor Cllr Anne Cor- bridge said: “The town of Lymington and Pennington is extremely upset about the ini- tiative and the total lack of con- sultation. It’s one of the most thriving high streets in the dis-

Company in hot water with regulators over complaints

Cow killed on road as final pony drift dates announced

commoners to collect together as many free-roaming ponies as possible, drifts are needed for health checks, branding, pro- cessing or dispersal. The final drifts of the autumn are then scheduled to take place on Sunday 25th October at Homsley and on Tuesday 27th October in the Picket Post and Bratley area. For their own safety, mem- bers of the public are urged to avoid parts of the Forest where the rounds-up are due to take place.

POLICE launched a major in- vestigation after two people were stabbed in Christchurch. The alarm was raised on Sun- day 27th September by para- medics who found a man and woman suffering stab wounds in Bargates shortly before 3.30pm. Both victims, who were in their 40s, were taken to hospi- tal for treatment, with the man described later as being in a se- rious but not life-threatening condition. The woman’s condition was not thought to have been SOUTHERN Water has been named by industry regulators as one of the worst for the way it deals with customer com- plaints. The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) revealed the find- ings in its latest annual house- hold customer complaint han- dling report, which compares the performance of water com- panies in England and Wales across a series of measures. Southern Water and Thames Water were the only two suppli- ers to perform poorly across all eight comparative measures. The report showed that com- plaints made in writing by cus- tomers of all the water compa- nies increased by almost 10,000 between 2019 and 2020, which is a 13% rise. Across the industry problems with bills – including disputes over how much water a house- hold has used and the recovery of debt – continued to cause customers the biggest head- ache, accounting for almost two thirds of complaints. CCW said it was “disappoint- ed” to see Southern Water lose some of the good progress it had previously made after a 22% increase in written complaints. The company also lagged be- hind the rest of the industry when it came to resolving com- plaints at the earliest stage of the process. CCW’s chief executive Emma Clancy has written to the com-

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Southern Water performed poorly across a series of measures

life-threatening or life-chang- ing. She has since been dis- charged. The force said the pair were known to each other, and no one else is thought to have been involved. The incident took place at the boarded-up Goose and Timber pub in Barrack Road where a large number of officers were seen investigating during Sunday afternoon. The pair were arrested on suspicion of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent before being taken to hospital, and pany calling for an urgent im- provement and has offered to support its efforts to tackle the causes of the poor performance. She said: “Consumers’ expectations of their water company are very simple – they want accurate, affordable bills and a service they can always rely on, but some suppliers are still not getting the basics right. “It’s encouraging most of the industry is heading in the right direction but we want to see a big reduction in the large num- ber of disputes over bills which still cause many customers enormous frustration, as well as resolving more complaints at the first time of asking.” CCW has helped to resolve more than 6,700 complaints

were each later released on po- lice bail pending further enquir- ies. A force spokesperson said: “The pair, both aged in their 40s, are known to each other and it is not believed anyone else was involved in the alter- cation, which is understood to have occurred in a nearby ad- dress.” Those who saw any suspi- cious activity around the time of the incident should contact officers on 101, quoting crime reference number 27:228, or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. from aggrieved households and returned almost £1.5m in finan- cial redress. A Southern Water spokesper- son told the A&T: “We fully rec- ognise that we need to improve the service we deliver to our customers, reducing their need to contact us and complain. “Our Customer Service Improvement Programme, launched in April 2020, will de- liver a better experience to our customers across a number of areas. Since then we’ve seen a reduction in written billing complaints by 18%. “We’re also using insight into our complaints to ensure we’re focusing on the changes our customers want to see and are fully committed to improving our position.”

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Double stabbing at old pub site

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