Dear Grayshott residents,

This is my six weekly newsletter for the week beginning 10th. October. The next newsletter should be posted during week commencing 21st. November.

Village of the Year

As you know the winning team of Dick Smith and Phil Bates have helped to get our village into the national finals. The inspection team are here on the 18th. October and I am told we need to put on a good show. Everyone can do something, even if it's just picking up a bit of litter or moving an unsightly item or parked vehicle out of the way, just for that day.

Concert in Grayshott

If you weren't there you missed an outstanding evening. Huge congratulations to Peter and Vivien Harrison for co-ordinating such a superb event on behalf of Buy in Grayshott. The Hampshire County Youth Choir were excellent and some of the solos were truly moving. The classical guitarist, Tom McLauchlan produced a range of wonderful sounds from his guitar that I never thought a guitar was capable of! The choir's director, Keith Clark, demonstrated an empathy with his choir, the music and the audience that added greatly to everyone's enjoyment of the evening.

This event has now moved very swiftly from being a very successful one off venture to an established and very important part of the Grayshott calendar. I wish Peter and Vivien every success in continuing with this superb venture and thanks to Applegarth Farm for sponsoring the event.

Skatepark

In part thanks to the above event, it seems the funds have at last been raised for the Skatepark. It's vital that young folk see a future in Grayshott as well as us less young ones. We have some great youth organisations in Grayshott run by some tireless volunteers and to see this project finally deliver after so many years of frustration is a wonderful achievement for all of them.

Our PCSO

I am pleased to say I am aware of Jim Leggat's presence in our village and I am getting similar sort of feedback from villagers. I have also seen more police cars in Grayshott in the past two months than, probably, in the past two years. I'd like any feedback on your views about Jim's visibility and frequency of attendance in the village so that I can pass on good comments or suggestions for improvement to Whitehill Police Station.

Fox and Pelican

I attended the license hearing at EHDC as a representative of 15 objectors to the application for longer hours at our village pub.

It's important to say that the application came in from the brewer and was basically the same application as this brewer submitted for all their pubs in the area. I don't have a problem with Dave and Clair who I think are just fantastic, run a good pub and really support our community.

At the meeting, I listened to the application before this one. It was a similar situation, a solus village pub, just that the brewer was different. The objectors made a big point that the application had proved divisive in their village, because whilst nobody supported the longer drinking hours, equally, nobody wanted to be in conflict with the pub managers who were highly regarded in that village.

Echo Grayshott. Most of the objectors who contacted me did not want to be identified for various reasons but one reason was not wishing to be seen to be in conflict with Dave and Clair. Whatever you feel about the F&P application, there seems to me to be little doubt that the Licensing Act 2003 is a dreadful piece of legislation. It may work in cities where there are many pubs that all close at the same time, giving the police a problem, but how relevant is that to a country village with one pub?

I was very unhappy about being forced into a confrontational situation with our local pub managers, but I do have a duty to represent the people who elected me. Despite giving the application full publicity in this newsletter, not one person contacted me in support of the application. In a village that speaks its mind, sometimes extremely loudly, this silence is deafening.

As it happens I do feel that Friday and Saturday nights are a problem for people who live near the pub and who live on the roads that are used by the heavy drinkers after closing time. The F&P is used as a "destination pub" many evenings and in particular on Saturday and Sunday evening. A destination pub is one where the main clientele are not locals but come from surrounding communities to drink there.

It seems to me that later drinking will give these residents a worse problem than now, because two hours extra drinking time to a heavy drinker simply means more alcohol will be consumed and the noise and vandalism that takes place today will take place two hours later. I just don't see how this can be in our interests as a village.

I was unsuccessful in getting the hours applied for reduced. However, the committee ruled that all doors and windows must be closed after 22.00 to minimise the noise nuisance to neighbours and also to install noise limiters on the amplification equipment. Recorded music to be set to background levels at midnight Sunday to Thursday and 01.00 on Friday and Saturday. All other aspects of the application as described in my previous newsletter are left intact.

I will be writing to those people who objected to me explaining their remedies should they be unhappy with the outcome. This license can be reviewed at any time and if anyone feels that these longer hours are causing them a problem then please get in touch with me or Angela Howes of the Licensing dept. at EHDC.

Finally a critical word about the police service, to which I normally offer my full support. I know that officers at Whitehill Police Station have concerns about longer hours for drinking. Police objections or comments about license applications in our part of the district are co-ordinated by Alton Police Station who submitted almost no concerns or objections at all to any application on their patch. By contrast, Waterlooville Police Station who co-ordinated comments for the southern part of the district made a number of comments and objections. This difference is inexplicable. It suggests there is a difference of attitude within the police service and I believe that Alton's reluctance to make legitimate comments has let down not just our community, but others in the northern part of the district.

District Council Area Community Committee Meeting

You may see some advance publicity for a meeting of EHDC's North East Area Community Committee, who are coming again to Grayshott on Tuesday 15th. November at 6.30 pm in the village hall. One of the agenda items will be a discussion about roads in the area and two senior managers from Hampshire County Council will be present to explain what is happening and answer questions. Our Hampshire County Councillor, Cllr. Sam James, is also a District Councillor and is a member of this committee, so he will also be available to answer questions about the service provided by the County and at this particular meeting, specifically about highways.

We have a bit of agenda with the County Council of course. I am nagging them on the pedestrian crossing, the Tesco situation and the ineffectiveness of the traffic calming situation we have in the village. I know there are other topics, too. It should be an interesting discussion and as it's local to us it would be really good to get a strong Grayshott turnout. (No hard questions for me please!).

Village Strategy

In my previous newsletter I said I would launch a strategy topic in each of the next ten newsletters, in order to develop a village strategy. Last time it was Car Parking. I have had a great response, so thank you very, very, much. Peter Hatch had the brainwave of putting it on the messageboard and I have fully noted all the comments I have received through that medium, as well as the direct emails and letters I have also received. Due to my recent personal difficulties, I'm a bit behind on things, but I hope to publish a discussion document quite soon. I'm delighted to tell you that someone in the village, who has experience of strategy development, has volunteered to help me assemble the discussion document.

I envisage that the document will be made available publicly in some way, I may organise a meeting in the village hall for a final discussion and then the finalised document will be part one of a ten part proposed village strategy. The other parts would be added ina similar, modular, fashion. The key thing is to see how this first project goes before I go too far down the line with other topics.

Grayshott Retail Economy

I am putting this forward as my second topic for the Village Strategy. As I mentioned last time, the structure of my comments here is;

1. The problem.
2. Why the village will benefit from solving it.
3. The options for solving it.

Everyone is invited to offer me their comments. If anyone wants to offer me help, so much the better. Remember, I would like to know if you agree that there is a problem and I have phrased it correctly. Then your view on whether it's worth investing effort and cash to solve it. Finally, I would like you to comment on the range of solutions I have listed.

1. The Problem.

In a phrase, the problem is that the number of retail shops in Grayshott is declining. The things that worry me are;

* A slight but detectable increase in the number of vacant shop premises. Cadeaux is the latest I think.

* Glaring gaps in the range of shops, e.g. no shoe shop.

* Too many non retail premises opening up in the village. This has affected Crossways Road in particular.

* Insufficient marketing of the village to a wider community as an exciting centre for nice, niche shops and so too much reliance on local custom.

* Insufficient marketing, to possible lessees, of the value of retail premises in the village with the result that they stay empty for too long.

* No knowledge base of what works and what doesn't in Grayshott, to help new shop owners get their marketing mix just right.

* How shall I put this? Inconsistent customer service skills and strategies from some of our local shops. We still get some Wednesday afternoon closing for example.

2. Why the Village Will benefit from Solving it.

We mustn't let the shopping centre decline, because it will reduce the interest in the village as a place to shop and therefore affect the other shops as well. The retail economy of Grayshott, in line with most villages, is a fine balance and any slight lurch off track could cause a knock on effect through the village.

A shopping centre the size of Grayshott cannot survive just on the business that comes from the village. It depends also on the business from people who come from surrounding towns and villages. Why do they come? Because they want to visit a shop or two in a planned way. This is called footfall. Once you get footfall, the opportunity exists for shoppers to make impulse, spur of the moment purchases from other shops they see in the village. Someone might come to shop at Tesco and then on the spur of the moment decide to buy some light bulbs from Tanchoux. This dynamic relationship is hard to quantify but definitely exists. If the number and range of shops starts to decline too fast then the original footfall will reduce and the rate of decline could become almost exponential.

As residents we get a big benefit from having a nice range of shops on our doorstep. We need to keep it that way. Many of us can walk to the shops.

Property values in Grayshott are higher than surrounding areas and the proximity of a good selection of nice shops underpins those values.

Having a shopping centre gives unusual life and vibrancy to our village. Just compare Grayshott to nearby villages who have no shops at all.

3. Options for Solving It.

1. Planning. The District Council's planning policies for Grayshott's shopping centre prevent two adjacent premises from being non retail. This is to ensure a good frontage of shop windows to encourage retail shoppers. However the definition of retail allows a number of uses that I feel are non retail. It also, by definition, allows every other shop to be non retail as has happened in Crossways Road and I see this as posing a significant risk. I want EHDC to change its shopping centre planning policies to restrict non retail to a maximum of one shop in three, not one in two as at present and also to be more specific as to what constitutes a retail outlet and a retail display.

2. Marketing. We need some sort of marketing package that spells out to potential shop owners some key facts. This could include the benefits of having a shop in Grayshott, the shops that exist already and the gaps that we would like to see filled, the way the business and residential communities work so well together in the village and so on. In particular it should have case studies showing what works well in Grayshott and what has not. This would be made available through Estate Agents dealing in commercial property in the village, to anyone thinking about setting up shop here.

3. A commercial plan for Grayshott. Despite the grand title this would be a simple document laying out in broad terms the type of outlet we want to have in the village. Some consumer or market research might be helpful to make it more accurate. It would describe the gaps in our retail services, such as a shoe shop and where we probably have enough, such as ironmongers. It would also specify the non retail services that are needed and where there is saturation. Ideally it would include preferred location of types of outlet to ensure that the Crossways Road shopping centre is as exciting and vibrant as he Headley Road.

4. Professional training for all shop owners in Grayshott on how to get the best out of their business covering everything from tax breaks to shop front layout and opening hours.

5. Improved access to the shops. Car parking was the previous topic so I don't need to open that up again. How about getting something done with public transport, such as a shopper's 'bus from surrounding towns and villages into Grayshott. Not an all day service but maybe in the morning around 09.00 to 10.00, lunch time and the evening around 16.00 to 17.00?

OK that's it. Please visit the website message board and post your views Village Strategy - Retail Economy and I look forward to hearing from you.

Next newsletter I will be launching another topic of village strategy.

...and finally

I'm back in circulation now after a clear month out with the illness and subsequent death of my mother in law, Sally's mum, Mollie. It's been a difficult time and everyone I know in the village has been incredibly kind and supportive. Thanks to everyone for your help and for putting up with my slow replies and such like. I'm now clearing up the backlog and normal service is just about resumed!

As usual, if you have comments, agree or disagree with me, please contact me on 01428-609858 or on Fcowper@aol.com

Best wishes,

Cllr. Ferris Cowper
EHDC Councillor for the ward of Grayshott and Cabinet member for Finance