Southampton City Council Press Releases

Riverside Park joins list of best parks and green spaces

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The Friends of Riverside Park and park gardeners gathered this week to celebrate their first Green Flag. The award - the equivalent of the blue flag for coastal resorts - recognises excellence in parks. A huge amount of improvements have been made to Riverside Park this year, including the installation of new bins, signs, benches and a popular new play area. Stephen Harding, Chairman of Friends of Riverside Park celebrated receiving the award with other Friends members and council sta... (read the full story)

Industrial Action planned for July 16 and 17

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Southampton City Council is preparing for the impact of industrial action on Wednesday, July 16 and Thursday, July 17. There is currently a national dispute between the Local Government Employers and the trade unions Unison and Unite over the proposed public sector pay awards, which are subject to government policy. Southampton City Council is currently doing all it can to minimise the impact of the strike on its residents. Cabinet Member for Resources, Councillor Jeremy Moulton, said: ... (read the full story)

Southampton District Energy Scheme Celebrates its 21st Birthday

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A partnership which has helped to propel the city to one of the most sustainable in the country is celebrating it's 21st anniversary. Southampton's award winning geothermal and combined heat and power (CHP) scheme, a partnership between Utilicom Ltd. and Southampton City Council, is 21 year old this month. Its birthday was celebrated with a party for 100 guests at the De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel on July 3. At the celebration Utilicom presented the council with a carbon calculator disp... (read the full story)

Try Southampton museums for free

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

On Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 July Southampton's Museum of Archaeology and Maritime Museum are hold their first free admission days of the year. This weekend also marks the opening of the fourth annual Art Vaults exhibition, with art on show in the Museum of Archaeology and in King John's Palace, in Blue Anchor Lane off Western Esplanade. The work in the Museum of Archaeology by artist Paul Vivian is called Homemade Projections and is one of the ten installations selected for this year's... (read the full story)

Unique opportunity to step inside Southampton's Tudor past

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This summer, the Tudor House Museum will be throwing open its ancient wooden doors for a series of public open days to celebrate the completion of the first phase of a multi-million pound restoration project. In March 2007 repair works totalling £1.9m began in order to preserve this historic structure in Bugle Street and prepare for its major refurbishment as a heritage attraction. Next year, phase two - worth £5.4m - begins. The building, which dates back to 1492, will be transformed thro... (read the full story)

Sure Start Thornhill put on giant picnic in the park

Tue, 8 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Families from Thornhill are invited to come and enjoy a free picnic in the park. The event has been organised by the staff of Sure Start Thornhill to promote their involvement with families with children under five in the Thornhill area. The fire brigade, police, children's information services, Southampton Scrap store, Thornhill tidy team and all the local pre-schools will join the picnic along with the Sure Start team. It is the first big event to be organised by Sure Start Thornhill and pa... (read the full story)

HMS Southampton visits her namesake city

Mon, 7 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The warship HMS Southampton will visit Southampton between July 8 and 11 as part of her continuing relationship with her affiliated city. The ship's company will exercise the freedom of the city with a parade starting and finishing at the Civic Centre on July 10. Deployed for the majority of last year around South America and in the South Atlantic, the Type 42 destroyer returned to the UK in December to a warm and emotional welcome. Having subsequently undergone a routine maintenance period t... (read the full story)

Congratulations Helen, Council Worker of the Year!

Mon, 7 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Southampton City Council's Helen Prophett has triumphed in the Leadership category of the national Council Worker of the Year Awards 2008. This award reflects the hard work and willingness to go the extra mile that Helen and her team at the Central Local Housing Office have shown in their efforts to transform the Golden Grove area of the city. Helen and nine of her colleagues attended the gala event at the Local Government Conference in Bournemouth earlier this week. She said: "I was overwh... (read the full story)

Gateway opens up to new art works

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Pupils from Bevois Town Primary School have been invited to produce 25 new art works which will soon be displayed in the recently refurbished Gateway One Stop Shop at Southampton Civic Centre. The children were asked to create works depicting familiar sites from around the city and these will now form an integral part of the new-look Gateway area. For their efforts each of the budding artists will be presented with a book voucher and Capita will make a donation of £500 to the school. A spe... (read the full story)

Southampton freezes school dinner prices for primary pupils to boost healthy eating

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Families with children in Southampton primary schools are being given an extra incentive to sign them up for a healthy midday meal after the city council froze the price of its school dinners for the next year. City Catering - the council's in-house catering service - has set the price of primary meals at £1.70, which is a zero percent increase on last year. In secondary schools, pupils will pay an extra 10p from September, which still makes Southampton's school dinners among the best value f... (read the full story)