Hampshire County Council has just heard that its proposals for faster broadband in Hampshire have been accepted. Hampshire is to get £5 million of the £8.4 million that the Government set aside for the region, including Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight.

The County Council submitted its revised local broadband plan to Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) in November last year and the £5 million of government funding is to be matched by local public and private finance.

Police have issued CCTV images following an attempted bank robbery at Barclays Bank, Osborne Road, Southsea at around 2.15pm on Wednesday, January 25.

A man entered the bank then produced, what is believed to be a handgun, from his jacket and demanded money from the cashier. He left empty handed after staff activated the panic alarm.

The man is described as:

Police are appealing for information after a floral tribute was stolen from outside an address in Rooksbury Croft, Leigh Park overnight between Wednesday, January 25 and Thursday, January 26.

A large pink bucket containing up to ten bouquets of flowers was stolen. The flowers formed part of a display placed in memory of a ten-year-old girl who died recently following a battle with cancer. The flowers had notes attached from family and friends.

PCSO Sophie Musselwhite said: “Thefts from memorials are extremely disrespectful and distressing, we urge anyone with information to come forward.

Gosport Borough Council has secured funding to help those residents in need of help this winter – with ‘Help is on Hand, hitting the cold spots!

The aim of the project is to identify and safeguard the most vulnerable in our community by offering face to face advice, benefit entitlement checks and practical help in an emergency.

Groups identified which may benefit from this scheme are older people, especially those who are isolated; people with disabilities; families with young children and, people with existing medical conditions.

Portsmouth travel to Peterborough tomorrow desperate to end a 3 game losing streak.

Pompey were gutted to lose 3-2 at Cardiff last weekend, courtesy of a stoppage time goal. Michael Appleton is without injured duo Aaron Mokoena and Luke Varney, with David Norris still suspended.  The Blues will climb above Posh in the Championship table if they win at London Road.

Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, believes as many as 1,200 stillbirths every year in the UK could be avoided.

6,500 babies are stillborn or die shortly after birth every year in the UK. The Sands charity’s report proposes that 1,200 babies’ lives could be saved every year through a combination of more research, better care and greater awareness of the risks of stillbirth and newborn baby death.

Penny pledged her support for the Sands campaign, “I was shocked to discover the scale of baby deaths in the UK. 17 babies are stillborn or die shortly after birth every day, with stillbirth being the largest contributor to child deaths under the age of five years.

Public bodies in Portsmouth have come together to make sure members of the armed forces and their families don’t lose out when it comes to services like education, housing and health.

At a landmark meeting yesterday[25 January], representatives of Portsmouth City Council, the Royal Navy, the Army, the Royal Air Force, the NHS, charities and voluntary groups met to prepare an armed forces covenant for the city.

The covenant would be a local version of the government’s National Armed Forces Covenant, produced last May, aimed at improving support for members of the armed forces, veterans, and service families, and ensuring they don’t face disadvantage in the provision of services.

Village halls and community centres across Hampshire are set to benefit from £39,363 of grant funding from Hampshire County Council.

At his Decision Day (20 January 2012), Executive Member for Culture and Recreation, Councillor Keith Chapman awarded grants to eleven Community Organisations and Village Hall Trusts, in the current financial year.

Police are now in a position to identify the driver killed in a single-vehicle crash at on the A272 at West Meon Hut on Tuesday.

Peter Lonsdale, 45, of Gosport, was killed instantly when his red Citroen Xantia collided with a tree shortly before 5am.

The incident happened on the A272 at Kitts Lane, east of Bramdean. The stretch was closed to West Meon Hut crossroads for 11 hours to allow for the vehicle to be recovered and the road to be cleared of debris.