Andover & district · Local news you can trust
The A303 shuts both ways past Thruxton from 9pm on four nights this week. North Way stays shut at Walworth Road into December, and Grateley closes for 5 days.
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Business
Andover shop front grant: up to £10,000, deadline March 2027
Globe Galleries has £1,782 to fix its roof. The same Andover fund pays up to £10,000, or £12,500 on a listed building, if the work is finished by 15 March 2027.
House prices
Test Valley house prices flat as Winchester rises 4.6%
The average Test Valley home cost £372,348 in June, £732 less than a year earlier. Winchester rose 4.6% and England 1.8%. Detached homes did the pulling back.
Licensing
Air Festival Licence Granted: No Fireworks at Thruxton
Councillors granted the Thruxton air festival its licence with 30 conditions, a 14,999 cap and no airborne fireworks this year. The show runs 12-13 September.
Andover Museum
Andover Museum: £150,000 Council Rescue Plan, 2 Votes
Test Valley would put in £100,000 and the town council £50,000 to keep Andover Museum and the Museum of the Iron Age open to March 2029. Both vote this month.
Andover town centre
Andover Council Selling Town Mills Open Space to Brewery
Test Valley wants to sell 566.8 sq m of public open space at Town Mills to the pub's brewery. Objections close on Friday, and the plan is not published online.
Andover town centre
Slots Arcade Bid for Andover High Street: Have Your Say
MERKUR wants an adult gaming centre licence at 38-40 High Street. It would be the first in a Test Valley town centre, and representations close on 8 September.
Parking
Parking in Andover: Free After 4pm and All Day Sunday
Every Andover council car park is free after 4pm, all day Sunday and on bank holidays. Full tariffs, two free hours at Shepherds Spring Lane, blue badge rules.
Licensing
Hampshire Air Festival: 26 Object, Licence Ruled On 26 Aug
Councillors decide the Thruxton air festival's drink and music licence on Wednesday, after 26 residents objected. The ground firework finale is already off.
Council
Test Valley Council's 2028 Abolition: Plan Now Withdrawn
The plan to abolish Test Valley Borough Council in 2028 was withdrawn on 7 September. What it would have done, and why May 2027 is now a borough election.
Bins
Andover Bin Collection Days: Bank Holidays Slip a Day
Bank holiday weeks run a day later, Good Friday is normal. Plus the five things the brown bin takes, garden waste at £43 and Scott Close tip hours.
Council Tax
Andover Council Tax Bands: £2,306.39 at Band D
The full A to H table for Andover Town for 2026/27, what each precept added, and the £20.80 borough charge for burial grounds that only Andover pays.
Jobs
Test Valley Under-25 Claimants Rise Fastest in Hampshire
310 people aged 18 to 24 were claiming in Test Valley in July, up 21.6% in a year: the steepest rise of any Hampshire district. The borough total barely moved.
Test Valley is a long thin district with a town at each end and about twenty miles of chalk stream in between. Andover is the northern one, the larger of the two and where the council works from. Romsey is the southern one, closer to Southampton than to Andover in every way that matters day to day. Stockbridge, Whitchurch, Chilbolton, Wherwell, Longparish, the Clatfords, Timsbury, Ampfield, North Baddesley and Nursling are strung between and around them.
Andover News covers both ends. The two towns share a council, which means they share planning policy, bin rounds, car parks and council tax bands, and those decisions are published in registers that hardly anybody reads. We read them and write down what they say, with a link to the source on every fact.
Or browse the hubs: News, Local Info and What’s On.
If we cannot point you at the document, we do not print the claim.