Christmas Fayre's

I have put a number of fayre's, bazaars etc on the Gosport.info web site.

Today I received details of yet another on the 3rd December. I will not have time to add the details to the web site over the next couple of days, so will put the deatails here.

Xmas Fayre Saturday 3rd December 12 - 3pm - Scout HQ Bury Close, Gosport
Come and see santa, toys, books, games, bric-a-brac, raffle, cakes and many more. Enjoy a festive mince pie with tea or coffee.

I will normally add the details of events to the Gosport.info web site, but this blog will allow me to add details at short notice here. So if you can let me have the details as soon as possible, it will help me and I hope you, with more chance for people to see your publicity.

So if you are looking for something to do in Gosport, please remember to look at this blog and Gosport.info . Ian

Light Rapid Transport

So the Government has stopped the LRT, they approve of them in the right place, up North perhaps. No suggestion on how to sort out the transport problems, though of course they insist on more houses being built, so more people will need to travel in and out of Gosport. What makes it worse is we see all these extra houses, but the Council Tax still goes up, the Government says due to wasteful councils, the councils say because the Government is making more demands at the same time as reducing the amount it gives towards the councils work. Who knows?

When the office where I worked was moved from Southsea to Cosham in 1996, it took one and a quarter hours to get there. When I left the job in 2000 the same journey took one and tree quarter hours, and extra hour per day traveling (this was by bus), there was little difference going over the ferry them by bus as the buses were reduced to two per hour. I understand that it was a bit quicker by car.

The other problem was if in the past you left early enough you would miss the children going to school. Due to the children now traveling further to school I believe partly due to parents choosing different schools and partly due to a shortage of schools where the children are, you seemed to get buses full of school children. There seems to be this idea, you can build more houses, because it doesn't mean you need more roads, schools or places to work. Ian

Gosport Railway Station

I understand plans for it have been made by Hampshire County Council, for 14 houses/flats, offices with in the walls of the Station. Protection of the badger sett found on the property is also included in the plans. I understand that there is no developer at the moment.

The plans had to go to Gosport Borough Council and as it is a listed building, English Heritage, you can find the brief on the County Council's web site.

I know some do not like hearing about development on the site as it would be a shame to lose it, so any plans have to keep in with the building that is there. The other side that it is at times effected by vandalism, one or two clear-ups per year. So if something put there, it may be looked after better than it can be at the moment. Let me know if you have any thoughts, or check on Gosport.info for updates and history of Gosport. Ian

Webgloss Internet Solutions

I have had the offer from Webgloss Internet Solutions that a discount of £5 per month, from an internet design and hosting package, which includes site submission to search engines. The normal price is £15 per month plus £20 domain registration fee. All you have to do is advise that you received the details from me Ian Jeffery, or from Gosport.info . You may be able to save advertising costs as instead of a large advert with all your details, you can add your web site address to your adverts where people can find out all about you. Ian

Keeping up to Date

Over the years number of items have peaked the interest of the people of Gosport. Some of them, such as what is to happen to Haslar Hospital, which I understand is still due to close after 2007, when the work on Queen Alexandra and Gosport War Memorial Hospitals has been done.

The Light Rapid Transport, has been on and off and on and off, I understand that is where we are now. It seems every year you have to leave earlier, by bus or car, to travel up the Fareham Road in a reasonable time. I understand a Government Minister said a few years ago, have you tried buses. I don't know what else can be tried .

A more recent event has been the introduction of parking charges in various parts of the town, and all the problems over who should pay, who should have discounts, who should be able to avoid fines. I have received a letter from my ward councillor, suggesting that they would make changes to the charges, giving lower season tickets for residents and free parking on Sundays and Bank Holidays. I am not sure whether this is Gosport Liberal Democrat's policy as I did not see it at the local election in May.

Are there other events that you would like to add, or give me further information, let me know. Ian.

Advertising on Gosprt.info

Over the last few months I have put the Google Adwords on Gosport.info it is making up to a £1 per day which covers some of the domains and hosting costs, or some of the advertising, which I use to let people know about the site, which encourages people to send in more information, photos and memories to add to the web site. I understand a number of people in Gosport who I contact about the site have not heard of it, even though it has been in the local paper and on the information boards around Gosport over the last 3 years.

I would prefer to remove the advertising that is less applicable to Gosport.info, perhaps even the Google Adwords, but would need to add advertising from Gosport businesses and perhaps organisations. A number people have asked about advertising on the Gosport.info web site, I advise that it is free for the business and organisation sections, and the cost to have a text or graphics ad on the left or right side of the page on every one of the 800 plus pages on the site, including the discounts for longer periods if paid in advance, which guarantees the cost even as the number of viewers and pages increase over the time.

They say the cost is fine, but do not come back to me, is it due to the offer of the free ad, or something else? I feel that to have their advert on every page of the site, would be worth the charge. Perhaps you could advise me of what I am doing wrong. Is the cost too high, not enough 'Hits' or not enough pages on the site. Any advice would be most gratefully received. Ian

Businesses and Organisations on Gosport.info

I now have around 1,800 Gosport businesses and organisations on the Gosport.info web site. I either received an, e-mail, letter or telephone call, or I have sent an e-mail or letter to them, asking if they have any objections to my adding the details and a link to their web site to the relevant section of Gosport.info. It takes a while to go down the roads checking for business and organisation changes, then sending out the letter, this is less successful with clubs and societies, as they normally do not have their own premisses. I have send my information pack to halls and community centres with some success. I feel it would be better, if I could make sure as many people as possible know about Gosport.info businesses and organisation section of the site and persuade them that there will be some benefit to them to have an entry on the site. Well it costs nothing so it is just the time to give me the information.

If you come across a business or organisation that is now on the web site, or is on the web site, but no longer exists, please let me know, so I contact them or remove it from the site, as applicable. Also if you can think of low cost ways to tell people about Gosport.info, I would be pleased to hear them. Ian.

Photos of Buildings in Gosport Before They Go

If you live in or near Gosport, or have visited over the years, you will have noticed building and areas being changed, rebuilt, demolished or replaced. I understand that there are a few people who go out to take photographs of the buildings before this happens, sometimes it is a bit late, as demolition has begun or fencing has been put up, making the photographs not as good as they could be.

If you hear about a building or area of Gosport that may be changing soon, please would you let me know, and I will add the information here and maybe also on Gosport.info so those who like to photograph this places before the change takes place, will have the opportunity to take them. You can find some photographs of buildings that have gone from Gosport at The 'Photos' section of Gosport.info.

Do not worry if you are inaccurate, the value of catching one before it goes will, in my mind make up for any number of false alarms.

This would not be about campaigning to stop changes, just about catching them before they go.
Thank you from me and the other Gosport photographers who do not want to miss another Gosport building. Ian.

5 Years of Gosport.info

As at 3^rd April 2006, Gosport.info will have been on the Internet for 5 years, though before the .info and .biz domains were available, the main one it was under was www.gosportlife.co.uk, though there was a number of others. It did take me 18 months to sort out the software to use and how to do a web site before I was able to publish the site successfully.

For the 5^th year of Gosport.info, I would like to some things to celebrate and publicise the site, in particular to the people who currently live in Gosport. I am thinking of adverts in The Town Crier, perhaps in other publications, though I understand they are normally more expensive.

I wonder if taking a presentation to events, including posters, flyers, businesses cards, also a laptop with the site on it (electricity and Internet is not needed) perhaps a presentation about the web site.

If you can think of some other way to celebrate the 5 years, an event that Gosport.info could be at, or extra items that could be on the stand for Gosport.info, please let me know. Best wishes Ian.

What's On - how to get more on Gosport.info

Over the years I have tried a number of methods to obtain more details of events in Gosport to add to the site. Sending out letters to Schools and Churches with posters, flyers and business cards, delivering leaflets, putting up posters adverts in The Town Crier. They all work for a while, but then seem to tail off.

In the past I have been involved with fund raising for a couple of organisations, one of the problems was sorting out publicity early enough, often due to decisions not being made in good time. Well there is not a lot that I can do about that sort of problem. Another problem was low cost advertising. On Gosport.info I will add details of events a year ahead, also you can have provisional information put on the page, then just send me updates as the plans are firmed up. You may be planning a Christmas Fayre next November, but no other information available, just send me that and I will put on the page for November 2006 , Christmas Fayre (your organisation) leave it at that and add the rest through the year. This could be useful as for example next Saturday there are 4 Christmas Fayres/ Fairs/ Bazaars, that I know of, so if you get in first, it may be the one people remember.

I have tried to make sending me the details as easy as I can, by e-mail, phone (with ansaphone) post or delivering to my address and a few others places around Gosport.

I would like confirm that there is no charge what's so ever.

If you have any ideas of any other way to encourage organisations and businesses to send me details of their events I would be grateful. Best wishes, Ian.

Welcome to Gosport.info

I have finally set-up a blog for the web site I have been doing since April 2001 about Gosport, Hampshire, England.

The idea came from one I had about 20 years before, where I felt that a list of Gosport businesses and organisations was needed.

In the case of the businesses, I would go to one shop in Gosport for an item, it would not be available, they would then direct you to another shop. It is not such a problem now as there are fewer shops. With the organisations, people are always saying there is nothing to do in Gosport, but I feel there is an organisation that does just about anything you can think of.

This was not possible at the time as printing, re-printing and distribution would have been impossible. I also wanted to put my Gosport photos on the web site. Since then from suggestions from people who have viewed the site and all the items sent in, sections on history, memories, people, what's on, photos from others and local ads, the site has grown to what it is today.

I add all the information to the site including the details and links to their web sites for businesses and organisation in the directory for free. I also add events for businesses and organisations both in the what's on and where space, also on the home page. I also add details of books written by people who have a connection with Gosport or writing about Gosport.

I hope to use this to add the bits and pieces that come up but cannot wait until the next www.gosport.info update, or have a short life. If you come across anything that you feel could go on this blog, please e-mail me at ian@gosport.info.

Well that's all for now. Ian.