7:30am Sunday 21st October 2012 in News By Emily Roberts, Chief Reporter

OVERTON has been asked to take part in a project to provide information to elderly residents.

Hampshire County Council ran a pilot of the Village Agent project in 14 villages, and has now given a grant to continue and extend it across rural Hampshire during the next three years.

It works by recruiting volunteers to offer four-to-six hours of their time a week to help increase and improve the way older people find and benefit from, information and advice.

A representative from the project spoke to Overton Parish Council and said: “Elderly people don’t necessarily get on the compu-ter very much so when they need information they have difficulty finding it. It’s things like care facilities, or getting a blue badge. Sometimes they don’t even realise they exist.”

He said village agents are equipped with a pay-as-you-go mobile phone and laptop, but spend most of their time out and about in coffee shops, libraries or at clubs, to offer advice and information.

The project is run by Age Concern Hampshire and Hampshire County Council’s older people’s well-being team, which plans to find a further 45 village agents over the next three years.

Overton Parish Council was asked to support the scheme, and be the first point of contact for anyone interested in volunteering and becoming a village agent.

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