Thursday 28 April 2011

Community Contact Point

Is your forum committee thinking about different ways to meet/survey residents, planning a walkabout or community event?

The Community Contact Point is a purpose-built partnership and multi agency resource, supported by Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service's Community Safety Department and local firefighters.

The use of this community asset is free of charge and can be shared with you to help with initiatives that work towards making Portsmouth safer.

The vehicle is crewed and delivered by two members of Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service and its design allows for a lift-up flap side with detachable awning sides and front. 

The Community Contact Point comes complete with:
  • Three computers with full (free) internet access
  • Free DVD facilities
  • Free Sky TV
  • Wheelchair access
  • Smart Screen which can be used for education purposes
  • Television screen
  • Kitchen to provide refreshments
For further information or to book the vehicle, please contact portsmouth.ccp@hantsfire.gov.uk or ring 023 9285 5124.

Child car seat safety checks



Last year there was a 90% fail rate on the seats that the road safety team checked. Most were fitted incorrectly but many were incompatible with the model of car. 

Children are still killed in car accidents because they are not properly restrained. You can best protect your children by putting them in a properly fitted seat which is appropriate for their weight and size. 

Thursday 21 April 2011

Flames & Finance at Baffins Forum




The next meeting of the
Baffins Neighbourhood Forum will be a bit different.

As well as holding an Annual General Meeting (AGM), the forum will be hosting an open workshop on the community engagement blog and how social media can be used to organise activities in the local community.


Hampshire Fire & Rescue service's community contact point (CCP) will be at Langstone Jnr School from 6pm for a drop-in session. Come and join us if you have a local issue you want to raise or would like to get up to speed on the forum's growing on-line presence.
If you would like to get more involved with the Baffins Forum and take on a committee role- Now's your chance!

The AGM will be held at 7.30pm and is open to nominations from local residents. If you are interested in a post please contact Forum Secretary, Allan Nevett on
023 92 610 541 or email: bnhfsec@gmail.com

Fire service colleagues will be on hand to provide practical fire safety advice for your home, as well as giving a short talk at 7pm on fire prevention. Hampshire Police will also join us to update the forum and answer your questions. The CCP also has Sky TV on board and we will be showing video presentations throughout the evening.

From 7.45pm in the school there will be a Question & Answers session with Roger Ching, the city council's finance director. Roger will take all your questions about the 2011 budget and the forecast for next year.

Why not come along?

Wednesday 11th May 2011 @6pm-9.30pm, Langstone Junior School, Lakeside Avenue Copnor

Google Map of Location

Thursday 14 April 2011

Draft Parks and Open Spaces Strategy



Portsmouth City Council’s parks service has recently published their draft Parks and Open Spaces Strategy. It can be found at http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/living/20574.html.

The strategy sets out the vision and aims for Portsmouth’s parks and open spaces for the next 10 years. The city’s parks and open spaces are used by 9 out of 10 residents, and the views of parks users and other interested groups are paramount to the way they are managed.

The strategy is still at draft stage, and the parks service would welcome any comments during the 6 week consultation period.

The consultation period will finish on 31st May 2011, after which the strategy will be reviewed in light of comments received. It is intended to bring the strategy back to the council’s cabinet shortly afterwards for adoption.

Comments can be sent to parks@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.

Answers to some of the specific comments from the feedback survey

Please note that this blog was targeted at those individuals that had asked to be included in the mailing that used to be sent out each week by the neighbourhood forum support officer, we made the decision to try using a blog instead of a weekly email to allow an archive of information and useful links to be built up.  We have started to direct interested residents to the blog since.
To navigate around the site there are several options, you can use the LABELS on the left hand side which allow you to choose a theme of articles to read by clicking on a keyword (the size of the keyword shows the relative number of articles in that group), or the BLOG ARCHIVE where you can click on the year followed by the month to view the titles of the articles published that month. You can then click on the article you wish to read.  Clicking on the tabs underneath the “Neighbourhood Forum Update” title (Home, Planning application summaries, etc.) will take you to the page of that specific information or return you to the home page.   On the home page you can read articles in order by scrolling down the screen until you get to the calendar where you will have the option of returning  ‘Home’ or reading ‘Older Posts’, once you have moved off the home page you will also have the option of viewing ‘Newer Posts’ to go back again.  Larger articles have been split so that there is not too much information on the screen, if you are interested in a particular article just click on ‘read moreto open the rest of the article.

To change the size of the font you will have to use the view feature on your web browser (once you click on the view tab it will say something like zoom or text size) it should allow you to change the font size.

If you would like to submit an article for inclusion on the blog please email neighourhood.forums@portsmouthcc.gov.uk  with blog article as the subject.

A couple of people said they would be interested in a blog for their forum so we will be following up how best to support them with that.

Only one person wanted a beginners session on blogs, so we will not be organising a course at this time but will be supporting on an individual level.

To make use of the calendar, the top bar has several buttons
 
on the left the Today button will always get you back to today’s page, the two arrow buttons will move you backwards and forwards through the calendar and clicking on the name of the month will open a small calendar that can be used to jump to the day you are interested in, on the right hand side you can choose how you view the calendar, either weekly, monthly or as a list, the print button allows you to produce a printed version of the calendar (if you have a printer).  To use the bottom of the calendar just click on the item you are interested in and a balloon with more details will be available, you can then click on the ‘(map)’, ‘more details’ and ‘copy to my calendar’ options that will open a map of the venue, give you any more details that are available or copy the event/item into your google calendar, if you have one.

Unfortunately the blog is not able to handle a discussion forum for swapping ideas very well, so we are looking at other services that could help us to do so.

We have included a link on the right hand side to Police.uk, the local crime and policing website for England and Wales which has helpful information about crime and policing in your area.

If you have any more queries or suggestions please contact neighourhood.forums@portsmouthcc.gov.uk  with blog query as the subject.

If you no longer wish to be notified of updates to the blog please email neighourhood.forums@portsmouthcc.gov.uk  with blog unsubscribe as the subject.