2006 was the best year yet for the Odiham Cottage Hospital Shop with sales up by over 5% - and revenues were particularly bouyant in early December following the Extravaganza! Its sister shop in Hartley Wintney also had a good year, given the difficult general retail conditions, with sales up by 1.6%.

Both shops have to pay full commercial rents and costs, so it's great that between them they have managed to raise close to £60,000 this year which will go to support the hospital through the League of Friends.

So congratulations to the team of 100+ volunteers and our manager Audrey: without them this just wouldn't happen.

And many thanks to all of you who have donated all the goods that the shops sell: without you this just wouldn't have happened.

2007 has started well - let's hope that it continues in the same way.

Hart District Council completed a retail survey in July this year. It only covered Fleet, Yateley, Blackwater and Hook - because these are defined by Hart as the "main settlements" in the district.

Odiham was left out, presumably because we are classified as a "Rural Service Centre" along with Hartley Wintney - but interestingly we have more shops and retail services than either Hook or Blackwater!

One of the interesting questions in the survey was "what improvements or new facilities would encourage you to make more use of your closest town centre?"

The top 5 answers were:
1 Nothing / very little
2 More major shops and stores
3 Better range of shops
4 More parking
5 Better quality shops

This seems to support the OTMG position on the need for more parking spaces in Odiham - and not the current proposed scheme involving less parking, stealth taxes and overwhelming signage.

Obviously we are limited in what we can do to encourage more shops - but we can help I am sure in encouraging local shops provide the goods and service that residents want. This will only work by being specific to Odiham and North Warnborough and not being based on Hart wide surveys - so in the near future we will be looking to do very specific surveys on this site to get your views and needs, and to communicate them to our retailers.

Please keep visiting and give your feedback when possible. It's important to all of us.