OLD BASING cricket Club and Old Basing Bowls Club are under threat from spiralling running costs.

The clubs' insurance premiums have gone through the roof and a new law has seen the cost of their bar licence increase from £17 to more than £700.

I am sure that this new law was not intended to penalise smaller clubs run by volunteers, but it does. Action needs to be taken to rectify this.

ON A brighter note, I was delighted to hear that Old Basing Colt Daniel Belcher has been selected to play cricket for Hampshire under-14s.

Congratulations and good luck for the coming season.

I WAS pleased to hear that Liz Jackson, who founded the highly successful local business Great Guns Marketing, will be working with female students at Costello Technology College to encourage their business ambitions.

We should all take Liz's lead and give more practical support to local schools.

HOUSING remains a hot topic. The South East Regional Assembly has consulted with residents (you hopefully received a copy of the leaflet Your Shout asking for views) and found, as I did, that we don't want to see ever increasing house building targets.

In Basingstoke, we are already building 800 houses a year, which is 200 more than the borough council has calculated we need for our own growth and prosperity.

Perhaps it would be better all round if decisions for the future of our communities are returned to local councils which are more in touch with how local people want to see their communities develop and are more accountable.