A skate facility for Longparish
Open Forum 7pm Monday 8 July

The Parish Council has been exploring the possibility of building a small skate facility in the village. A working group, including potential users, prepared a report which looked carefully at the advantages and disadvantages of different types of equipment. They recommended that we go for a low- key entry level half pipe, probably made of wood to minimise the noise and they identified six potential sites. You can see the report on the village website at www.longparish.org.uk.

There will be an open forum before the next Parish Council meeting at 7pm on Monday 8th July in the village hall to hear the latest news and discuss the idea. Please come along if you are a potential user or would like to find out more about the project. We have invited Candy Huxham, a youth worker who masterminded the setting up of a much larger project at Hythe in the New Forest and Sian Newland, our community police officer to give us the benefit of their knowledge and experience.
The Parish Council supports the idea. So does Test Valley Borough Council, which will put in £3 for every £1 that comes from the village. The Parish Council has set aside £2,000 for the project, but, if it is to go ahead, around another £2,000 will be needed from village fund raising. Please come to the open forum if you can help.

Confirmation

Our new Bishop of Basingstoke, the Rt. Revd. Trevor Willmott, will be coming to St. Mary Bourne Church on Sunday, November 3rd at 6pm for a Confirmation service for all our benefice. If anyone would like to prepare for Confirmation, or just to discuss the possibility, please telephone Nona Harrison 01264 720320

Services for under-fives in Longparish Church
The services take place monthly and usually fall on the 3rd Monday of the month. They start at 2.15pm and finish in good time to collect children from school. There will be bible stories, singing, making music, craft and refreshment in a relaxed atmosphere

July 15 The sower and the seed
There is no meeting in the August holidays
Nona Harrison
Bible Study Group

We shall meet on Wednesdays, 10th July and 24th July 8pm - 9.30pm to study two Old Testament characters-

Esther and Jeremiah.

All welcome. For details of venues, or to request a lift etc., please contact Nona Harrison 720215
Prayer group

We have a meeting in St. Nicholas Church to pray for our church and village, usually on the 3rd Monday of the month. The next ones will be on Monday 15th July and Monday 19th August 8 - 9.15 pm. All are welcome to join us.

New look family services

Next month's Hill & Valley will have an article about the new servise which will start the 3rd Sunday in September

Bus Services from 1 July 2002

By the time Hill & Valley appears every household should have received an information pack on the new bus services. Ring 0845 6023135 if you need one.

Some of our existing 26 weekday buses will continue to operate: (all times given are from the Plough)

8.34 to Andover
14.20 from Andover
16.25 from Andover

All Sunday services remain the same.

Other services will be replaced by cango service 4 which covers Barton Stacey, Hurstbourne Priors and Longparish and Andover. This is a more flexible service which will have 2 types of stop - timed stops, (which in Longparish will be the Plough and the Cricketers), and bookable stops. Until September buses will stop at all stops, but you are not guaranteed a seat if the bus is fully booked.

To be picked up at a bookable stop you should register first on the form included in the pack, and you will receive six free cango tickets. After that, you can ring to book a seat, preferably in advance, but even after the bus has started. You will be picked up and can be taken to a much wider range of destinations. You can ask to be taken to Whitchurch where there is a connection to the 86 service to Winchester. In Andover you can ask to go to the Hospital, station or Tesco. If you have a mobility impairment you can ask to be picked up at your door, and wheelchairs can be accommodated.

The new timetable is in the pack, and there is a service roughly every 2 hours between 8am and 6pm