Welcome
Welcome to the 25th issue of Hampshire Now - the magazine produced for Hampshire residents by Hampshire County Council.
Here in Hampshire we’re fortunate enough to enjoy both beautiful coastline and stunning countryside. And, in celebration of this, our summer edition is packed full of articles about the ‘great outdoors’ and the wealth of treasures Hampshire has to offer.
Learn about the work of our Countryside Services team, who, in partnership with the Countryside Access Forum, are working to improve our local countryside. For those interested in Hampshire’s past, discover some of the fantastic heritage sites that the county has to offer. And, find out what events and activities we’ll have on our stand at this year’s New Forest and Hampshire County Show, taking place at the end of July.
Our article Care is changing – have your say is also well worth a look, as over the next three years the way we manage and pay for adult care services will be changing dramatically. The County Council has recently begun a Commission of Inquiry and is gathering evidence from local people, carers and experts about their experiences and challenges facing care services. Your views and opinions will help inform this process, so we’re really keen for you to get involved and tell us what you think.
Highways maintenance is a top priority for residents, and in our article The road to success we meet and talk to our new Highways Contractor, Amey plc, who are responsible for keeping our roads and pavements in a safe and reasonable condition. Find out what they have to say regarding the multi-million-pound contract.
You’ll also find our regular features including our What’s on guide to events and activities taking place throughout Hampshire this summer, the popular Review column with great ideas for books, DVDs and CD s to borrow from Hampshire libraries, and our handy A–Z of Services.
Enjoy!
Councillor Ken Thornber CBE, Leader of Hampshire County Council
Leader replies
Perhaps our Council Tax could be reduced somewhat if the people you employ had something better to do than compile a useless magazine.
Your ‘Annual Report’ offers no explanation of the proportion of tax payers money spent on employees salaries and pensions.
We are constantly being instructed to cut down on waste and yet we have the Council force-feeding us with junk mail which we must then spend time, effort and petrol money to take it to a recycling bay for it then, probably, to be loaded on a ship and sent to China. So much for helping the environment and climate change!
Anonymous
Dear resident
Hampshire Now is one of the main ways we communicate with you, allowing us not only to fulfil our legal obligation to keep the residents in touch and up-to-date with the work of the County Council, but also to consult residents on key issues.
The magazine regularly contains important information which would otherwise have to be communicated to households separately at greater cost through separate leafleting or costly advertising. Hampshire Now was the direct result of research. Residents told us they wanted more information about the work of the County Council and how their money is spent, on a regular basis and in an accessible format. To minimise the cost we subsidise the magazine through advertising resulting in each edition currently costing 16 pence per household.
With regard to our Annual Report, the information provided in the spring edition is just a summary. Our Statement of Accounts is available to view online and this includes details of the County Council’s spend on salaries and pensions. Please visit our Finance webpages.
In terms of recycling, newspapers and magazines (along with food and drink cans, plastic bottles and cardboard) can be recycled via kerbside collections and over 95% of households in Hampshire now have access to a regular kerbside recycling collection service. Hampshire has one of the best reputations for recycling in the UK, and is currently the top performing county, diverting over 80% of domestic waste from landfill. This reputation has been built on all 14 local Hampshire authorities and a designated waste contractor working in partnership. All recyclable materials collected by Hampshire residents are sorted within the county and then distributed to high quality recycling facilities across the UK to be turned into new products. For example, all newspapers and magazines go to a major paper recycling facility in Kent which recycles them into new newsprint within seven days.
Councillor Ken Thornber CBE, Leader of Hampshire County Council