Infrastructure

 Broadband, Power generation, Transport and Traffic, Sewers

Broadband 

 Tired of waiting for decent broadband?
 BBC iPlayer slow and jittery?

 Slow broadband stopping you working from home?

Many of you have asked for faster Broadband.  But at the moment St Mary Bourne Parish  is not being covered by the Hampshire County Council's initiative to get 95% of the County onto faster Broadband. Evidence of high emand will help Hampshire County Council to get funding.  

 So register your need on    

www.hants.gov.uk/broadband-signup   

 Power Generation

Gas supply  
11 people signed up at the April 2012 consultation.  Sadly a feasibility study showed that it is not financially feasible.  

Cheaper oil prices  
Register for the Hill and Valley Fuel Syndicate or to find out more, call Jonny Rees-Davies on   01264 738860  or email HVFuel@hotmail.co.uk

Solar power, wind turbines, anaerobic digesters, ground heat pumps

Is there sufficient interest to start a local action group to promote more environmentally friendly local sources of power?

The anaerobic digester that can be seen from the Picket Piece road into Andover is large, smaller ones could be viable.
There are an increasing number of applications for  solar panels and solar power farms
We have registered that the majority of you do not like wind turbines.

The SMB Plan says

·       "New energy systems: large wind turbines will not be allowed in the Neighbourhood Plan area; large-scale solar or bio-digesters will not be permitted; small-scale solar (domestic) or biodigesters (community) will be supported, as long as they do not create line-of-sight issues; provision will be made for potential future projects, considering the rapid improvement in efficiency of particularly solar units, with a vote on their acceptance needed."

Transport and Traffic

Highways

What are the highways issues in the parish?   

Reports have been made on highways issues in both St Mary Bourne and Stoke.  Many small scale maintenance issues will be covered by the new Lengthsman Service to be run by local Parish Councils, including St Mary Bourne, which will  start in the next financial year (2014/15).  

What are Lengthsman Services?

Drainage: Clearing existing drainage grips; Maintaining ditches; Cleaning channels; Clearing outfalls; Rodding pipes (off highway).

Signage: Cleaning (non-illuminated); Minor repairs.

Other Minor Works: Remove soil/detritus and leaves; Cutting back vegetation overhanging the road or footway; Clearing footways of weeds/moss and leaves; Removing vegetation from parapets or fences; Grass strimming; Reporting defects; Sweeping; Litter picking; Removing fly posters; Unauthorised sign and graffiti removal; Cleaning street name plates; Cleaning bus shelters; Minor repairs to street furniture; ‘Village upkeep’ to include: painting/staining of bus shelters, parish owned notice boards, benches, fences, pavilions; Replenishment of salt bins from a central point (by parish – salt provided by HCC) and spreading on public minor footways); Spreading of salt from roadside bins on footways.

Individual parish councils can set their own priorities from the above list and, if they wish, to fund further from their own resources what is important to them. The benefit for parish councils is more control on getting the above drainage and other minor works done.

  

Speeding
This bring more complaints than almost anything else.  Speedwatch has been in operation for about 2 years and is well supported by the local police as it has definitely increased awareness of speed amongst local drivers. A number of other parishes have sought advice from the St Mary Bourne volunteers and taken it on as well.  Extra volunteers would help to keep this initiative the success it is at the moment.  Please speak to the Parish Clerk 0126473809 if you are interested.

A report displayed at the March Consultation meeting  containing 14 recommended changes to road signage to assist in the enforcement of the 30mph speed limit along (and on access roads to) the B3048 from Stoke to St Mary Bourne has been forwarded to the Parish Council. The report has been made in consultation with the local Speedwatch team of volunteers which operates along this stretch of road. The recommendations include removing existing erroneous and misleading signage, repainting faded road signage, and incorporating new signage.

All of the recommendations have been carefully considered with the objective of making the 30mph speed limit more visible and signage more impactful. In spite of the Speedwatch team being in operation for over 18 months now, there are still many incidences involving drivers exceeding the 30mph speed limit, with some driving in excess of 45mph. The volunteer team feel strongly that poorly visible and misleading signage is contributing to this situation and that it needs to be made clearer.

                                                                                                                                                                   

                                 

Parking
There are many cars parked on the roads, whilst it can be irritating it does help to slow down traffic.  This seems to be the view of many.  
But parking for major functions is a problem in St Mary Bourne.  The Plan has made suggestions to release parking areas in SMB and stipulations for parking in any new housing development.  


Public Transport
A good bus timetable is as we all know a thing of the past, it is just not viable.  But there are so many alternatives, and plenty of help to get a local initiative going. Can you see the potential in for example   Lift Shares, Taxi-Shares, Car Clubs, Community Bus Schemes:  
Look at this website if you are interested, get other like minded  people together and SMB could be an example to other parishes. www.hants.gov.uk/transport-self-help-kit


Street Lights
At the April 2012 consultation opposition to street lighting was mentioned by 3 people and has since then often been quoted by many of you.

The Sewers and Ground Water Infitration

Eliminating ground water infiltration to the sewers

The work undertaken so far by S Water

·         119 manholes surveyed. Of these, 100 had clear water flowing through them showing that infiltration was occurring further upstream.

·         30 manholes identified for repair. Manholes showing infiltration were found at various locations in the valley from St Mary Bourne as far as Ibthorpe.

·         11km of sewers (including private drains) surveyed, using CCTV camera units.

·         Major infiltration discovered at 12 sewer locations

The vast majority of this work was completed before work was halted by bad weather but S Water will return to complete it as soon as weather conditions permit.

Work Still to be done

·         About four manholes need to be sealed (one of which is at one end of the slump near Applegate), and four top hats.  These will be repaired when levels allow, probably about June time.

·         The “slumps” (areas where the sewer pipe has sunk) One is just downstream of Applegate (on the bend) and the other is located further downstream just past the Bourne Valley Inn.  The slump at Applegate will be repaired once the ground water levels drop as low as possible, so this is more likely to be done late summer/early autumn. 

·         S Water will be installing flow monitors in the sewers to record flows over a four-week period. This will help to assess whether there remain any major leaks in the sewers or in private drains causing inundation of the network. This will commence when appropriate conditions prevail.

Sewer Capacity

Southern Water has provided the following calculation for the capacity of the sewer  and see below for an explanation for those who are not so technically minded

For sewer flows the DWF (dry weather flow) and sewer capacity has been calculated by village.

Village	Ibthorpe& Hurstbourne	Stoke	St Mary Bourne
Population	592	216	712
DWF l/s	1.5	0.54	1.8
Peak 3 DWF l/s	3.6	1.3	4.3
Sewer Capacity l/s	19	23	25

DWF figures are industry standard 155 l/h/d + 40 % infiltration allowance

Peak DWF is breakfast diurnal peak (3 DWF)

Sewer capacity is the average across the five sewer lengths leading out of each village.

We confirm that flows (even at peak DWF) are far below the sewers'   capacity, so in dry weather there should be no problems. We calculate the flows based upon population served and an industry standard of 155 l/h/d. Population is determined from the Post Office address point data and Census figures for average occupancy in that area. The dry weather flow figures also allow for a 40% infiltration flow, again this is an industry standard.

 Pipe capacity is calculated on hydraulics using the pipe diameter and gradient of each manhole to manhole sewer length. We have looked at the sewers leaving each village to confirm their capacity at pipe full exceeds the calculated peak dry weather flow (3 DWF). In the normal diurnal flow pattern of each day, peak flows result during  breakfast period and this is on average 3 x DWF.

 In conclusion this shows that for dry weather flows the sewers are more than adequately sized. However, it is worth mentioning that the majority of the catchment is a foul only system.  This means it is designed for sewerage flows only, and therefore not intended to carry rainfall from roofs or paved areas.  There are a few small areas in the catchment where there is a combined system, and this would accept both surface water and foul water.

For the untechnically minded (by Clem Jones)

These calculations are based on widely recognised statistics using averages, since the group we are considering is large, over 1500 people, any individual variances tend to smooth out.  (Large house full of people compared with a cottage used at weekends only.)

The key number is that each person, on average, uses 155 litres per day (155 l/h/d).  This allows for houses to have more than one bathroom, dishwashers and washing machines.  To that figure 40% is added to allow for some infiltration (we currently have much more than 40% infiltration), which is a daily rate per person of 217 litres. The above table expresses the rate in litres per second.  Divide 217 litres by 86400 (60x60x24) to get litres per second - Row 3 in the table (DWF l/s). 

As in all statistical models like this you have to plan for peaks and troughs. In this case the peak is assumed to occur at getting up time in the morning when the majority of the houses are seeing maximum concurrent use of washing and other facilities.  The peak is assumed to be three times average; this is row 4 in the table.

To calculate peak capacity (Row 4), for example in Ibthorpe & HBT,

·         The DWF (in Row 3) is reduced by 40% (to take off infiltration calculation) 155/86400x592 =1.06 l/s 

·         1.06 l/s is multiplied by 3  (peak demand)  = 3.18 l/s

·         Then  add back the infiltration figure (40% of average is 0.44 l/s) = 3.62 l/s

 Row 5 is the sewer capacity at the different locations.

We are only interested in the sewer at the southern end of SMB where it will be carrying all the sewage from Ibthorpe, Hurstbourne, Stoke and SMB.

This capacity is 25 litres per second, and the capacity it has to carry is 3.8 litres a second at average and 9.2 litres at peak.

As stated by S Water, there is plenty of capacity in the sewer both now and going forward, when they are  not inundated by ground water, even though it has a couple of semi blocked areas (see Slumps above). 

For those of an anorak tendency, if you look down the sewer in the summer when ground water is not an issue  the level of water running through is about 2 or 3 inches in the bottom of a 9 inch pipe. This physical observation cross checks well with the calculations.

Any comments on what you have just read? Any thoughts or suggestions? Anything worrying you about the local infrastructure?  Please comment in the box below ...