ESPOPF

22nd February 2010
Diane was invited to speak at this LGA Conference and chose, for its title "Planning Neighbourhoods for All"
I am the Hon. Secretary of an Older People’s Forum in Eastleigh, in south-east Hampshire. We have over 3,000 members, who live in 6 villages. The area is semi-rural and very attractive, bounded by Southampton Water and rivers, with country parks and conservation areas. 83% of Eastleigh homes are privately owned, though there are wards of significant deprivation.

Be part of the record!

The story of where you live, the people and places around you, is an ever-changing one. Living Links is a Heritage Lottery funded project which seeks to help communities collect and record their changing histories, making connections between the past and the present.

It can help you:

* Discover how to collect and record local history
* Care for and manage local records by providing free training and advice
* Access mainstream archives to help build up local research and knowledge
* Make projects sustainable and lasting by offering funding and advice.

Living Links is pleased to have welcomed members of ESPOPF to the Record Office for training days and to have supported the hugely enjoyable Community Information Fair on September 16th, 2009.

To find out more visit our website:
http://www3.hants.gov.uk/archives/living-links/

April 7th, 2009
Diane was invited to the Launch of the new charity, which will unite Age Concern England and Help the Aged. The main speakers were the Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP Secretary of Health and Social Care, Sir Michael Marmot Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London, Matthew Cherian CEO HelpAge India, Dr Nicola Brewer Chief Executive Equality and Human Rights Commission and Rt Hon Theresa May MP Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Click on the link below for the full text of her presentation.

Diane’s Speech to Eastleigh Borough Council 23/1/09

Mr Mayor,
I am speaking on behalf of ESPOPF and the borough-wide Save Our Travel Tokens campaign.

We have taken up the cause of the frail elderly and disabled who will become considerably disadvantaged, if the Council re-affirms in its budget-setting a Cabinet decision to stop providing travel tokens to them.

When you, Mr Mayor, and your fellow councillors, consider this matter, you will either know how much hardship you will cause to these people, in which case it will be a very callous decision if you remove the tokens, or you will not know. In any case, are you not bound now to consider the equality implications?

April, 2010
David and Diane Andrewes have been invited to present some of ESPOPF's research and to take part in a seminar at the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, National University of Ireland, Galway, next spring on April 19th.

September 2nd-4th, 2009
Help the Aged/Age Concern invited David and Diane Andrewes to present a paper on "Older People shaping research" at the Annual Conference of the British Society of Gerontology at Bristol. They took "Pills & Perils" as an example of the differences between service-provider and service-user led research.

April 7th, 2009

On behalf of Eastleigh Southern Parishes Older People’s Forum, I wish to complain about the abrupt decision of the EBC Cabinet to end the travel token issue, which has served the needs of older and disabled people for many years as a flexible alternative for those unable to access public transport.

Our complaint is