BISHOPDOWN FARM RESIDENTS' ASSOCIATION (BFRA) NEWS JANUARY 14 By the time you read this we will have held our AGM – there will be a report in the next Parish Newsletter. We can announce now that, after serving on the BFRA Committee for many years, Sharon Safe has decided to step down. Sharon played a pivotal role in helping with the Pavilion when the BFRA was left holding the reins after the previous committee walked away. On your behalf we would like to thank her for her efforts and hope she is still prepared to lend a hand! We are always ready to welcome new committee members, especially as we will be looking to welcome new residents on HP2 into the Bishopdown Farm fold over the next 4 years. HP2: The appalling weather conditions have made life very difficult for the developers. The Barratt's end of the build in particular suffering from lack of drainage with the result that their temporary roads rapidly became covered in a slippery layer of mud/chalk mix. With the best will in the world it has not been possible to stop some of this muck getting out on to Pearce Way which is why the road sweeper is busy all day every day. The Site Manager has been doing his best to try and find areas to lay down tarmac within the site to use for contractor vehicles. Considerable pressure has been applied on him by both Parish and Wiltshire Councils because of the state of Pearce Way and the number of vehicles that were parked on the road and verge. As this is being written it does appear that Pearce Way is starting to clear and we may have seen the end of the main issues – but we still have the rest of the 'winter' to go! For those who walk, the footpath has finally reappeared although Green Lane remains an assault course. HP Trail: The trail continues to be heavily used despite the slippery conditions. Three months on, the lady who was knocked over by a dog is finally able to walk outside her front door but still not well enough to walk her own dog. Meanwhile, the owner of the dog responsible has still not come forward to apologise! We are aware of another similar incident which put another lady in hospital – although this time it was her own dogs that were responsible. The terrain really is unforgiving – difficult to get a grip on when wet but very hard when you hit it. On a different note, the BFRA are having to run regular litter picks as the litter build up seems to be increasing. Have we really got so many selfish and inconsiderate residents who cannot be bothered to put their litter in the appropriate bin?! Grass Cutting: The BFRA continued the battle to get the long grass/pasture behind St Teresa's Close cut and finally we won! As we suspected, there was a fundamental communication problem with the new contractors (Balfour Beatty Living Places) coupled with the success of the new WC App which allows reporting of issues via mobile devices. Unsurprisingly, the App has provided far more work than the old system of telephoning Clarence! Police Update: The BFRA represents you on the Police Neighbourhood Tasking Group which meets quarterly. The Group is run by Sgt Richard Goodman who is responsible for all the Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPTs) in Salisbury. Each NPT consists of a regular beat bobby and a PCSO who are responsible for their 'patch' as well as supporting other Police activities when required (such as Thursday through Saturday nights in town). The NPTs work with local Neighbourhood Watch (NHW) Groups where these exist. Unfortunately, while there seem to be plenty of residents who would welcome being in a NHW group there are precious few people prepared to offer to be a co-ordinator. The general excuse is 'I don't have the time' when the truth of the matter is that, provided you have email, it takes less time to be a co-ordinator than it does for someone to walk into your house, grab something and walk out! We would therefore encourage residents to become NHW co-ordinators by contacting Wiltshire Police. The last NTG meeting was in December. The good news remains that we live in a safe area and levels of reported crime are very low. In fact, the long dark winter nights have meant that we were only able to set two priorities for local policing rather than the usual three. Theft from sheds, outbuildings and similar continues to be the number one priority. Clearly thieves see these uninhabited areas as easier to steal from and they presumably have an efficient way of fencing stolen goods (eBay?). The Police have had some success in catching these thieves and there are indications that the problem is reducing in Salisbury although possibly increasing in rural areas. There is a new second priority which is theft from cars, especially on Friday and Saturday nights in car parks. Generally, items have been left on view despite many years of warnings not to leave valuable/attractive items on view (coats and jackets are attractive because they might contain something valuable). The Police are aware of some suspects and need to concentrate their efforts on catching the thieves at work. You may recall that there was a problem with theft from cars a while ago – when the Police finally apprehended the 'professional' villains the problem virtually disappeared overnight! One final snippet of information from the NTG was that the local Police cannot issue parking tickets unless the illegally parked vehicle is causing a hazard or obstruction. Parking enforcement is legally the remit of the Civil Enforcement Supervisor at WC. BFRA Website: Don't forget to make regular visits to keep up to date with what is going on. The site is kept up to date and there are a growing number of useful links to other sites. Communicate with your Committee at: www.thebfra.co.uk.