Year in Review 2019: July, August and September's major stories in Andover

FESTIVAL season got into full swing with Andover resident Kevin Cox achieving viral fame after an impromptu performance at Glastonbury.

Security guard Kevin was filmed singing along to the Charlatans during their Saturday night slot at the festival.

The footage was shared on social media and eventually found its way to the band’s frontman, Tim Burgess, who insisted his management team get in touch and extend to Kevin a once-in-a-lifetime offer.

The Andover man said: “They said, ‘we’re planning a big tour, coming up at the end of the year. You can come to as many as you want – bring some mates, meet the band for a drink before. You can even have a rider if you like.’

“It was quite bizarre.”

The following week it was revealed that plans for a £1.5million project to replace Andover almshouses had been, more than seven years after the proposal was mooted.

The historic building, built in 1869, will instead be retained with the inside gutted and rebuilt.

Also in June, a report revealed that the fire which destroyed the Ocado warehouse had spread because staff turned off the sprinklers and a detection system failed.

The first report by the Hampshire Fire and Rescue authority had revealed that the fire ignited at 1.41am as the result of a fault in a battery charger, but it was not detected by the system that was designed to identify such an incident. It was then not spotted until 34 minutes later through CCTV by an engineer after the fire had spread.

August

A NUMBER of traveller groups set up camps in Andover over the summer, with one of the most notorious instances taking place in August as a group left rubbish and ‘human excrement’ on land near Picket Twenty.

They were said to have accessed the site by sawing down fences and were evicted after roughly 48 hours after police moved them on.

And an Andover mum was left speechless when her disabled daughter took her first steps after doctors said she would never walk.

Mollie Wincott, 22, captured the moment three-year-old Mia took her first steps and posted the short clip onto social media, amassing one million views in 24 hours and comments from well-wishers from across the globe.

The Chantry Centre lost one of its major stores this month, with Pandora shutting up shop. But TVBC also announced plans to offer short-term ‘pop-up’ leases in a bid to fill empty units, while a once-in-a-generation’ £1.3million project to transform the Town Mills area was later given the green light.

Also, on August 12, disgraced ex-Andover athletics coach Phillip Banning was jailed for seven-and-a-half years after pursuing a “horrific reign of abuse” in the town during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

September

TRAVELLERS returned to Andover in September, with a group setting up in Saxon Fields just days after being moved on from two industrial estates in the town.

An encampment left behind a trail of rubbish after breaking into an unused unit in Anton Trading Estate, before causing “mayhem” by blocking a road as they bolt cut their way into the former Ducal site in Walworth. They then progressed to Saxon Fields, with further groups in Picket Twenty and Augusta Park emerging in the weeks that followed.

Plans to move Andover Health Centre medical practice into a brand new, multi-purpose wing of Andover War Memorial Hospital were also unveiled this month.

It came after health care bosses said the current surgery, which treats 14,000 people, is not “fit for purpose”.

The West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said the existing building would require “significant expenditure” to bring it up to modern day standards.

The plans stated: “The new build will enhance the well-established hospital and the additional capacity will support primary care in Andover to meet some of the demand presented by the increasing population.

“It will increase opportunities for innovation, help to attract and retain staff and ensure that patients continue to have choice in their primary care provider and the provision of care locally.”

And on Thursday, September 19, TVBC councillor Kevin Farrer made national news when he announced he was quitting the organisation after the authority took him to court over his refusal to pay his BID levy.

Slamming evidence down on a table in court in front of the council’s representative Peter Colebeck, he said: “I have just resigned, I cannot work with hypocrisy”.

He later added: “It is wrong, you are wrong, the council is wrong and BID is wrong.”