The school holidays have arrived and although the recent weather has meant that it hasn’t felt much like summer, I hope our jam-packed programme of August events will help change that.

Today is the first of our free Four Fun Fridays, a collection of colourful acts, live performances, street art and family-friendly activities taking place in Andover High Street every Friday throughout August.

These have become a popular staple in the Andover events calendar and will be accompanied by further events this summer such as picnics in Riverside Park with free garden games and activities, our popular Second Sunday Markets and the sports camp at Vigo Recreation Ground put on by the Test Valley Partnership. 

I hope this summer will also give families the opportunity to go and explore the many green spaces and nature reserves we are lucky to enjoy in Andover.

Rooksbury Mill has just won the coveted Green Flag award again and our newest nature reserve, Bury Hill, which opened last month on the edge of Andover in Upper Clatford is currently blooming with wildflowers.  

Running parkrun and having just started volunteering at Andover Junior parkrun on a Sunday, I also spend quite a lot of time at Charlton Lakeside, as many others do.

For readers that haven’t ventured there, or are new to Andover, it’s a stunningly beautiful and well-loved leisure facility.

Various improvements have been made in recent years including a new crazy golf course, floodlights for the BMX track, a new athletics track, an extension to the pathway and a new bridge so the site can be accessed via Foxcotte Road.

Alongside Charlton Parish Council and Places Leisure, Test Valley has just launched a consultation on how we can improve the facility yet further – which will feed into our investment plans for the future. So please have your say at testvalley.gov.uk/charltonlakesideconsultation.

It’s important to me that we continue to make our parks, open spaces and nature reserves as welcoming as possible so they can be enjoyed not just in the school holidays but all year round.