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The Merchistoun Community Library

The Merchistoun Community Library is a fiction only library.

Membership is £1.00 to cover administration.

The library is self service and open week days whenever hall is open.

The community association is adding new, donated books and books from the store every month at the moment to try and improve the book stock.

If you have books, fiction and paperback only please you wish to donate please bring to Merchistoun Hall.

These books will either be added to the library or sold to provide funds for new books or donated to Oxfam.

We also currently have a small grant from EHDC and are buying books that have been recommended best sellers by Waterstones or amazon. Look out for these on our social media.

Hampshire Police

Crime Prevention Bulletin August 2025

Crime Prevention Bulletin July 2025

Crime Prevention Bulletin June 2025

Crime Prevention Bulletin May 2025

Crime Prevention Bulletin April 2025

Neighbourhood Watch

Our News August 2025 is here!

Hello Neighbours,

The latest edition of our monthly newsletter is here.

There's a trend in the summer for specific types of crime to increase, often thanks to the warmer weather. That may come as a surprise, but opportunist criminals will take advantage our desire to get out, relax or travel. This August, find out what the risks are and how you can protect yourself whether at home, or away.

As always, this issue also has a host local news and special offers too. We hope you enjoy reading it.

P.S. Don't forget to share with your neighbours or to pass on any advice that might help someone you know.

Attachments

August 2025 Our News.pdf

Message Sent By
Charmian Walker-Smith
(Neighbourhood Watch Network, Head of Comms & Digital, England & Wales)

Police & Government Cyber Crime Support for Local Organisations

My name is Chris White, and I’m a Police Detective working with the Police Cyber Resilience Centre for the South East, a Home Office, and policing initiative set up to help organisations protect themselves from cyber crime.

We’re seeing a growing number of online threats disrupting small organisations, especially email and social media account takeovers, ransomware attacks, and network breaches. These threats can have consequences for finances, data protection, and public trust. To support local organisations, we are offering practical tools, guidance, and resources to help identify and reduce vulnerabilities. This support is aimed at any organisation using email, websites, social media, or internet-connected devices, including parish councils, charities, and small businesses.

You can gain immediate access to funded security awareness training to help meet ICO guidance on data protection, regular threat updates and actionable guidance, and a direct link to police cyber security expertise. You can join the centre at www.secrc.police.uk, or simply reply to this email and I’ll be happy to help.

As a key community partner, I would also be grateful if you could share this government opportunity with organisations in your parish, particularly smaller charities and businesses that often lack the resources to access cyber security support on their own.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions or to assure yourself of this police crime prevention project.

Regards,

Chris White

Police Detective Inspector

chris.white@secrc.police.uk

+44 (0) 7909 906177

Home-Start Butser

Home Start Butser - Volunteer Leaflet

Homestart Butser Poster

Being a parent has never been easy. It can be lonely, frustrating, heartbreaking and overwhelming. Life changing events can happen to anyone. All parents struggle at one time or another. That is why Home-Start is ready to support families through their toughest times.

Volunteers are trained to provide practical and emotional support to families with young children through one-to-one home visiting and in Home-Start Butser’s Family Groups.

All our services are based around the principal that volunteers offer no judgement, just compassionate, confidential help and support.

If you would like to find out how to get help or if you are interested in becoming a volunteer visit:

www.homestart-butser.org.uk - 01730 233755

Report cyber-offences, scam/phishing emails, texts & websites

Advice on reporting cyber-offences – https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/guide-to-reporting

Received a phishing email? – Report it now to report@phishing.gov.uk

Received a suspicious text message? – Forward it now to 7726

Report a scam website? – https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/about-this-website/report-scam-website

WALKING IN HAMPSHIRE

Walking Poster

Are you fed-up with doing the same old walks?

Walking in Hampshire www.walkinginengland.co.uk/hants is the website for you!

With hundreds of walks to download and print, free, it also has books of walks, contact details for all the walking groups in the county and much more. Whether you want to walk on your own or with a group all the information is there in one place.

John said ‘There is so much walking information on the web but it is difficult to find. Walking in Hampshire (part of the Walking in England suite of websites (www.walkinginengland.co.uk) – one for each county in England) has brought it together in one place so whether you are walking from home, or away on holiday, you will be able to find a walk suitable for you’.

With walks from half a mile to twelve miles plus long, and a note of suitability for pushchairs and wheelchairs, everyone can find a walk to enjoy.

So home or away, check out the websites and get walking!

John Harris

www.walkinginengland.co.uk

email: john@walkinginengland.co.uk

Footpath Closures

Potential closure of footpaths: Information for residents can be found via the following link below. If any footpaths, including urban paths are not shown, an application needs to be made to Hampshire County Council to hopefully ensure its continuance. The application process can be found by following the link.

https://www.hants.gov.uk/landplanningandenvironment/rightsofway/definitivemap

What is a Definitive Map?

Each highway authority keeps a Definitive Map and Statement of all public rights of way - the formal legal record of the existence of footpaths, bridleways, restricted byways and byways open to all traffic. In total it offers more than 137,000 miles of public footpath, bridleway and byway providing a level of access admired throughout the world.