BT

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Training offered in Hambledon for use of life-saving defibrillators

Training in the use of defibrillators (AEDs) is being offered to residents following the installation of one inside the former telephone kiosk at the Hydestile Crossroads.

This takes the number of defibrillators in the village area to five; outside the village shop, on the exterior wall of the Merry Harriers, at St Peter’s Church, at Hambledon Football Club’s ground at Badger Park, and now at Hydestile.

Alison Martin, a Busbridge Parish councillor who helped arrange for the AED (automated external defibrillator) to be installed in the traditional red kiosk – which has also undergone renovation in the process – has arranged for a training session to be held in the meeting room at St Peter’s Church, Church Lane, Hambledon, on Saturday September 28th.

The training will be given by an expert from the London-based Barts City Life Saver organisation, a charity that teaches life saving skills and originated from St Bartholomew’s Hospital. The session begins at 11am with basic life saving training, then AED training at 2pm followed by baby and child resuscitation at 3pm. Participants can opt to attend the whole session, or part.

AED’s are used on people suffering from sudden cardiac arrest and, along with Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation, can greatly increase survival rates.

Training will be free to the Hydestile volunteers on the Busbridge Parish Council-sponsored rota, but to all others there will be a nominal cost of £20 per person to cover the costs of the trainer travelling to and from London and a donation to the charity’s work.

Anyone in the village can register to attend. Please contact Alison Martin at email amtillies417@gmail.com or by phone on 01483 893619.

If you would like to know more about the work of the charity please visit www.bartscitylifesaver.org

 

 

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A New Lease Of Life For Hydestile’s Red Telephone Kiosk

The red telephone kiosk at Hydestile crossroads is being given a make-over after it was decommissioned as a working pay phone.

The kiosk is a familiar and much-loved landmark at the entrance to the village and was at risk of being removed by BT. It is on the border of Hambledon parish but just inside the boundary of neighbouring Busbridge.

 

Fortunately, Busbridge Parish Council has undertaken to preserve the box by financing a renovation before the expected installation of a defibrillator for public use in an emergency.

This work is currently underway and is being carried out by a professional restorer (Ralph Restorations) who works from the back of his 1960s Austin A35 van, which is pictured here parked at Hydestile beside the kiosk.  A familiar sight on Britain’s roads in years gone by, it was an Austin A35 that featured more recently in several Wallace and Gromit animated films.

 

 

For several years Busbridge Parish Council has paid towards BT’s continued maintenance of the kiosk as a working pay phone. However, so few calls were made that the council decided to end this agreement and instead to “adopt” the box under a BT scheme, to ensure it remained in place as a distinctive feature of the rural cross roads landscape.

Under this scheme the ownership of the kiosk is transferred to the parish council for a nominal fee and BT undertake to maintain the working light inside.

The only other red kiosk left in the immediate area is the one in Hambledon, outside the shop and Post Office on Cricket Green. Hambledon Parish Council succeeded in getting the box “Listed” as a heritage feature by Historic England and it remains in working order although it no longer accepts coins.

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Hambledon Road Closure at Rock Hill

A section of Hambledon Road at Rock Hill, between Church Lane and Woodlands Road, will be closed to daytime traffic from Monday (November 12th) until Friday (November 16th)

This is to allow carriageway excavation by engineers on behalf of British Telecom. This involves clearing blockages in existing underground infrastructure. Access to local properties and the emergency services will be maintained.

A diversion will be in place requiring traffic to use Station Lane, Milford and the A283 Petworth Road, or the reverse.  Full details of the works and diversion can be found on the earlier news item on this website. http://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/?p=10306

However, the road remained open until late morning on Monday as no work had started. This may have  been because of torrential rain earlier in the morning and localised flooding, particularly in Station Lane. In addition, Salt Lane, at the junction with the Hydestile Crossroads, was also closed for a time on Monday morning to allow for the removal of a fallen tree which came down in winds and rain yesterday afternoon.

Work did start later in the day and the closure was enforced.

However, there may be periods during the day when the road will be passable, but this should not be be taken for granted. The road was expected to be open in the evenings when work finishes for the day.

Heavy rain showers followed by bright sunshine throughout Monday may have led to difficult road conditions – but it also created a beautiful rainbow seen here from the Greensand Way by Hambledon Church, looking across the fields towards Hydon’s Ball.

 

 

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Winter Weather – An Update on Bin Collection and Other Matters

Hambledon has shivered along with the rest of the country with temperatures plunging to -8C (please see latest photos under the Gallery menu)  but it was only in the last two days that snow caused a problem.

Although there were several relatively minor accidents in the lanes around the village, Hambledon remained open for business and credit goes to the village shop, which offered free deliveries to customers using volunteers in 4-wheel-drive vehicles if needed, and to the nursery school, which remained open all week when many other schools closed.

Stephanie Campbell, school secretary, said a great deal of effort went into keeping the steep entrance, car park and pathways clear of ice and snow. “We enjoyed fun snow play at the nursery school, warming up with hot chocolate when it got chilly outside.”

The Merry Harriers welcomed customers with a big log fire and hot food. The church, however, has had to cancel its Sunday services because snow remains on the steep Church Lane approach.

Hambledon Road, which was regularly gritted by Surrey County Council, is now clear of snow. Other lanes were gritted by local people and thanks go to them for keeping the village on the move. Most of the grit bins belong to SCC and it is responsible for refilling them. The parish council owns and maintains the bin at the top of Woodlands Road and this will be refilled over the weekend.

The Friday waste collection did not happen but please leave your bins out as Waverley Borough Council has advised they will be emptied over the next few days.

The payphone kiosk outside the village shop is currently out of order but the fault has been reported to BT which has said it has alerted its engineers and expects the repair to be carried out early in the coming week.

Hambledon Parish Council has a team of volunteers with 4-wheel drives, chain saws etc, ready to help out in the event of weather-related disruption and a link to them and other helpful numbers can be found on the opening page of this website. Please contact Stewart Payne, in the first instance, on 07831 393561. Arthur Frearson has joined the volunteer team and can be reached on 01428 683812 or 01252 722973. Please do not contact Tim Coleman or Nick Watson for the time being as both are unavailable.

If a grit bin near to you is in need of a refill please contact Stewart who will put in a request to Surrey County Council.

Our photographs show a snow covered Rock Hill, outside the nursery school; Church Lane and the listed red payphone outside the shop and post office.

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Road Closures in Hambledon Monday 29th February to Friday 4th March

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Due to work being undertaken by BT, the following road closures will be in place in Hambledon next week.

– the entire length of Lane End from its junction with the A283 to its junction with The Cricket Green

– the entire length of Malthouse Lane from its junction with The Cricket Green to its junction with Rock Hill

Work will take place between 09:30hrs and 15:30hrs. Access will be maintained (via a manned barrier) for pedestrians, emergency vehicles, residents and businesses.

Stagecoach are not aware of any disruption to the 503 bus service through Hambledon, so presumably, the bus will be allowed access via the manned barrier.

The Village Shop will be open as normal. Given the disruption they will especially appreciate your continued custom.

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Possible Roadworks in Hambledon Road/Clockbarn from 15th Feb

As part of the resident-funded installation of broadband to Hydestile, Openreach and their contractors have been working hard this week in Home Farm Road, Busbridge, at the Crossroads and at Hydon Heath.
Technically there have been some challenges in Hambledon Road and an underground duct will need replacing – we are told there will be roadworks next week, and a possibility of emergency road closure of Hambledon Road (north of Clockbarn Lane).  This is because of the very narrow parts of Hambledon Road which prevent safe working.  The closure will be short notice and hopefully for a short time.   We have leveraged our good relationship with Surrey CC Highways to expedite matters and have been negotiating to reduce the inconvenience but safety trumps most arguments.  So please be understanding if you should encounter a Road Closed sign – it will be for a very valid reason.

More detail at www.GU8Superfast.co.uk

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Superfast in Hambledon – What Next?

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to Hambledon’s superfast broadband survey and to Jon Petersen for analysing the results. For those of you who are interested, they can be found at http://www.hambledonsurrey.co.uk/superfastsurvey/. For what happens next, read on.

Peter Howell-Davies, the Hambledon Parish Clerk and Tim Forrest (representing Chiddingfold Parish Council) have met Peter Martin (Deputy Leader, Surrey County Council) and members of his Superfast Surrey team to discuss progress to date and the problems facing Hambledon and Chiddingfold. BT claim that 96 per cent of Surrey premises can now access speeds of at least 15 mbps but this is not borne out in practice. It takes no account of variations as between urban and rural areas – for example, the recent Hambledon survey of premises which get their broadband via Cabinet 6 shows that the superfast guarantee applies to only 61 per cent of them. Data issued by BT seem to bear little relation to what is happening on the ground as revealed by the actual experience of individual users, and might not therefore be the best basis from which to determine who should benefit from further Surrey Superfast intervention or BT up-grades. The results of the Hambledon survey are therefore being passed on to Superfast Surrey.

Once data produced by BT (and, we hope, others such as Hambledon Parish Council) has been analysed, intervention work to make good shortfalls in coverage has to be approved by the EU. Only when this has been done can Superfast Surrey and BT move on to recommending which premises should benefit from intervention. Proposals to this end then have to be submitted to one month’s public consultation before they can be signed off.

Whatever intervention package is proposed, it will have to show that it represents value for money and fairness. The latter criterion could prove particularly difficult in the case of what are currently estimated to be up to 20,000 disenfranchised rural premises across the county, given their location and, in some cases, the distances between them. Intervention may also be required in some urban areas.

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Superfast Broadband – Equal Access for All

Superfast broadband is being rolled out across the country, primarily by BT Openreach but in Hambledon’s case assisted by government via Surrey County Council. Superfast, with its new fibre optic cabling to roadside cabinets, enables far greater broadband internet speeds for those residents that take up the superfast fibre service.

Superfast is becoming important to many residents. As more devices such as smartphones, tablets, computers and televisions connect to the internet, the speed of the line is critical. In addition, lack of superfast broadband is impacting house prices as buyers are increasingly checking broadband speeds before buying properties.

There is good news for those of us on the Wormley (01428) exchange who live within about 1.8kms of BT’s cabinet 6 (at the A283/Lane End crossroads). Those Hambledon residents have a choice to sign up for superfast broadband today – simply contact your internet service provider to upgrade immediately. The monthly cost is about the same as the older service. BUT there are a number of villagers on the 01428 exchange who are too far away from the cabinet to be able to receive superfast.

The Parish Council is therefore asking all villagers to complete the following “Expression of Interest” form so that it can quantify those who already can – but in particular those who currently cannot – benefit from superfast. This information will assist it in lobbying BT and Surrey County Council which is shortly going to carry out a review to ascertain how to connect the “hard-to-reach” properties and enable all villagers to receive superfast.

Responding to the “Expression of Interest” does not mean that you have to take up the service. It puts no obligation on anyone but it could help determine future needs and benefit many villagers.