April 2025

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Bishopstoke Carnival 2025

 

It is nearly that time of year again!  Bishopstoke Carnival will be on Saturday 21st June with the Parade starting at 11.00am and the Fete starting at Glebe Meadow at 12.00pm.

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The Parade is bigger and better than last year and will follow a longer route.  The fete will be on Glebe Meadow with the Duck Races and River Floats on the River Itchen just across the road.  This year events on the Meadow will include a Dog Show, musical entertainment, a circus performer and much more.  If you are lucky, you may even see a Princess or a Superhero!

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For more information, please follow Bishopstoke Carnival on Facebook or go to the Parish Council website.
 

​VE Day 80 Celebrations

 

This year, on Thursday 8th May, it will be 80 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe.   We are currently planning a celebration that we hope the whole village will be involved in. 

 

The Parish Council are collaborating with the WI, who will be making some of the official VE Day 80 cakes and St Mary’s Church, who will be hosting the event and joining in with the nationwide ringing of church bells at 6.30pm.  Chris Humby and the Bishopstoke History Society have also very kindly given us some amazing pictures of Bishopstoke during the war and the VE day celebrations.

 

For more information, please go to https://www.bishopstokepc.org/ve-day-80

 

Easter Hunt and Messy Play

 

On a very sunny day in the Easter holidays, we held our first ever Easter Hunt and Messy Play session at Sayers Road play area.  We were unsure of how many people to expect but over 100 people came (not all at once!) and we gave away over 50 prizes.  The children enjoyed hunting for the clues – letters to spell a word for older children and pictures to find for younger children.  The messy play proved popular too with lots of people enjoying the construction play.

 

We had lots of lovely comments from everyone who came. 

 

“This is really great.  Always looking for free things to do in the school holidays”. 

 

“Thank you so much.  We all had a really great time.”

 

We will be doing some more messy play sessions during the summer holidays.  Please go to www.bishopstokepc.org for more information.

 

Accounts audit

 

The annual internal audit of accounts has been completed and once again Bishopstoke Parish Council has been given a clean bill of health. There is now a final stage where the accounts are sent to an external auditor for final checks, and we expect the results back before the end of September.

 

Parish Assembly

 

Our annual Parish Assembly this year was held on Tuesday 22nd April at Bishopstoke Methodist Church.   

 

The meeting started with a welcome from the Chair, Councillor Louise Hillier-Wheal, who said how lovely it was to see so many residents and grant recipients there.   The Chair then gave her Address and Annual Report.  After this, some of the groups who received Parish Council Grants over the past year gave presentations sharing what they do, and how the grant had been used..  The grant recipients were; Itchen Navigation Preservation Trust, Citizens Advice Eastleigh, BiFOHH Street Pastors, Life Education Wessex and Thames Valley, Romsey and Eastleigh Mencap and Slice Hair Academy.  The Councillors and residents all enjoyed hearing about the wide range of ways that the Parish Grants had helped improve the lives of people living in the village.   If you or anyone you know is involved with a charity or community group that works to help Bishopstoke and its residents you can find more information about Parish Council grants here www.bishopstokepc.org/grants. After the presentation of the audited and published Annual Return the Chair closed the meeting. 

 

Lots of people then stayed for some refreshments and to talk to the grant recipients and to the Councillors about Parish Council projects.

 

Sewall Drive Play Area

 

The transfer of the land up at Sewall Drive is now underway and should be transferred to the Parish Council shortly.  The site includes allotments, a building that will be turned into the new Parish Council office and a large area of green space.

 

After the recent Play Area Review conducted by the Parish Council, we realised that there was not a Play Area for younger children at the top end of the village.  As a result of the Review, we are now planning to put a Play Area aimed at Toddler/Infant age children on part of the green space at Sewall Drive.  We are very excited about this project and look forward to sharing more information about this project shortly.

 

Parish Council Address

Please address any post to:

Bishopstoke Parish Council

BPC

PO Box 716

Eastleigh

SO50 0RQ

 

The next meeting of the Parish Council will be on Tuesday 13th May at 7.30pm and will take place in Bishopstoke Methodist Church. For further details or information about anything the Parish Council does please visit the Parish website.

 

For further information, please contact the Administration Officer, Emma Earl.

by email: admin@bishopstokepc.org.

or visit the Parish website at:  www.bishopstokepc.org

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