Last Straw?

The thatched restaurant area on Swanage Quay had a site meeting today, in order to determine it's future. Of the circa 50 people in attendance nobody spoke against the retention of the "thatch pagoda". Councillors will decide on Jan 22nd whether it has to be torn down or not.

SOS (Save Our Schools) for Swanage

Dorset County Council last week announced their intention to collapse the current 3-tier system of schools in Purbeck to 2-tiers. They have given local residents until just February 25th to raise objections to these proposals.

For Swanage this will force the closure of the increasingly thriving Middle School, of St Marks First School and of Swanage First School.

From age 11 all Swanage children will be forced to make a 20 mile daily round trip to an enlarged Secondary School in Wareham. How many parents will still view Swanage as a viable place to raise their children and what will this do to the future of Swanage as a sustainable community ?

Pupils of the two threatened first schools will have to drive across town to a new large Primary school that DCC propose to build on the Middle School site (where access and parking are already a major problem).

This, together with equivalent closures of the other 3 Middle schools in the area, will cost at least £75 million but save just £400k per year (these are DCC figures), a payback of 188 years. Council Tax bills will doubtless bear the brunt of this cost for many years to come.

The fastest way to express your views on this is to complete DCC's online feedback questionnaire at www.dorsetforyou.com/purbeckreview (click on the “Future school provision in the Purbeck area questionnaire” link at the left hand side of the screen). You can also read their full proposals here.

An on-line petition to fight the closures has been set up at http://www.petition.co.uk/no_to_2-tier_system

Also you can email your views to purbeckreview@dorsetcc.gov.uk and Cllr Hiett is said to be keen to hear local residents' views on this matter at d.w.hiett@dorsetcc.gov.uk

DCC have arranged just one public meeting in Swanage to discuss their plans, on Wednesday 28th January, 7.30pm at Swanage Bay View Caravan Park.

Please help make sure everyone in Swanage is aware of the threat to our schools and of the urgent need to make their views known before February 25th !



Posted by Anonymous to swanageview at 9:24 AM

SWANAGE HOSTILITY ASSOCIATION

Anybody heard anything about this?



Posted by Anonymous to swanageview at 8:14 PM

Iceland

Courtesy of the Echo

¨Food giant Iceland has bought 51 former Woolworths stores and plans to create 2,500 new jobs.

They include Salisbury Street in Blandford and Southampton Road in Ringwood¨.

Good news for them, I wonder whatĺl happen if Somerfield gets the chop?

Ho flaming ho!



Posted by Anonymous to swanageview at 6:35 PM

New Subject

If you want to raise a new topic, post your comment in this section — just click first on Comments below, then type in post a comment (top right of the next window). Can you choose a title for your post, please? Sometimes it's hard to work out what a comment is about and what the subject is. A new heading will soon be set up, allowing others to see and add their own comments. It seems it's sometimes easier to click on 'Post anonymously' than to open an account in your name - you can always add your name to your message. We try to keep posts civilized.

HOUSE CONDITION SURVEY

HOUSE CONDITION SURVEY
Is the CPC Survey inspection of our home, Council Tax RE-VALUATION
by the back door ?


Dear Householder

HOUSE CONDITION SURVEY

I am writing to ask for your help with a survey of the housing in Purbeck. The Council has a leqal responsibility to assess the condition of houses in the area to help it make decisions such as how to allocate financial assistance, and how to help improve home energy efficiency~ With this in mind, the Council is about to start a house condition survey. The survey is being carried out for the Council bv~ CPC Ltd, who specialise in this type of survey for Councils across the country~

Your home has been chosen, in a random sample, for inclusion in the survey and I am writing to ask if you would assist in this task by allowing a surveyor to carry out a survey when he or she calls at your home. The survey should take approximately 30 minutes. All information will be treated in the strictest confidence. Following the survey, the Council then recetves collated information, such as the percentage of houses that may qualify for financial assistance for repairs or insulation, and will not use data for any other purpose. Data is presented in a statistical form that does not identify individual property details.

Each surveyor carries a Council identity card, which they will show to you at the beginning of the survey. If you are in any doubt as to the identity of the callerr please do not let them into your home and call one of the telephone numbers listed be’ow. If you would like to arrange an appointment time with a surveyor this would be very helpful. The appointments can be made at a time to suit you including in the evenitigs and at weekends. To do this please contact the CPC Survey Office on Freephone 0800 783 1079 during office hours~ Alternatively you can wait until a surveyor calls on you at your home.

The answers to some frequently asked questions about house condition surveys are set out on the reverse of this letter which has been sent out from the offices of CPC who are carrying out the survey on behalf of the Council. It therefore bears a Portsmouth postmark. Your co-operation with this survey will be of great assistance~ It could help w secure h~creased funding from the Government for investment and assistance in Purbeck. I would like to take this opportunity to thank-you, on behalf of the Council, in anticipation of your help.

Yours faithfully




Mr R. Conway
Principal Environmental Health Officer



Posted by Anonymous to swanageview at 2:08 PM

Paintings

http://tinyurl.com/9tztgb

Bobby Brown, Fred Crutchfield, Jim Hardy.

RIP.

Many thanks to all concerned in saving these paintings.



Posted by Anonymous to swanageview at 7:36 PM

ON WASTED TIME ........

I had always understood that water conservation should be attempted whatever the weather, and that it was best to ‘bath with a friend’ or take a shower. Since the only friends with whom I would like to take a bath are currently married to people who might take a dim view of my doing so, I invariably take a shower. Alone. But last week, my electric shower exploded.

On the advice of ‘Which’ magazine, I bought their ‘best buy’ electric shower; it was reassuringly expensive, professionally fitted and I even took out a 5-year warranty.

I soon discovered the meaning of the three settings. ‘Low’ means Cold. ‘Medium’ means Cold. ‘High’ means Cold unless you turn the graduated knob to about three quarters of its distance, when acceptably hot water pours out at an amazing three litres a minute, i.e. a meagre trickle.

Imagine my surprise when a call to their Customer Service department elicited the suggestion that whilst showering I ‘turn on some other taps in the house – that might make it run hotter’. Hmm. I don’t think that this particular ‘advisor’ had got the point of water conservation.

Clearly she was of the same school of thought as the many Dorset County Councillors who actually suggested that it would be in the interests of Swanage for recycling to be taken by car to Wareham recycling centre, so that the Swanage centre could be closed and turned into a …….. well, whatever daft scheme they have in store for it.

Isn’t it sad that it took a huge petition, an awful lot of lobbying, a few threats and the active involvement of several of Swanage Town Councillors for common sense to prevail. We have now been promised £2.25m to build a new centre in 2010, plus £250k p.a. to run it. Why couldn’t they have said that in the first place ?

But once again, just as I expect ‘joined up’ thinking from the manufacturers of a ‘Which Best Buy’, I expect it from County Councillors.

Silly me.

David Hollister



Posted by Anonymous to swanageview at 5:06 PM