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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!
SWANAGE HOSTILITY ASSOCIATION
Anybody heard anything about this?
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 !
THE WAY FORWARD FOR OUR SCHOOLS.
Please post POSITIVE and CONSTRUCTIVE ideas about the way forward for education in Swanage and Purbeck.
Woolworths
Who is taking Woolies?
Feel Good Songs On Sunday!
This Sunday 8 February The Refrains will be performing Feel Good Songs of the 60s and 70s at Bar Seven, 1 High Street, Swanage from 5pm to 8pm. Free admission and All Welcome!
HUM MEETING ON
Wednesday 18 February 2009
2-00pm - 4-30pm at the Swanage Town Hall Purbeck District Council is investigating the "hum" in Swanage and people affected by the noise are invited to drop in to give their opinions and comments to the Council’s Public Health Team.
Unexplained noises are a common problem for residents in Purbeck and can be very irritating especially if the source of the noise cannot be traced.
The information gathered will be used to find out how widespread the problem is within Swanage and to help the Council’s investigation to reach a conclusion.
If any members of the public have any queries or concerns, please contact: The Environmental Health Officer, Purbeck District Council.
Telephone: 01929 557 328 Purbeck District Council, Westport House, Worgret Road, Wareham, 0H20 4PP
http://www.swanageforum.co.uk/ closed again. I wonder if its for good this time or it will be back with the same muppets posting random drivel ?
I agree and hope Justalocal doesn't go back onto the forum if it returns. I've never know such a bitter person with so much hate in all my life.
Who ever they were they kept me and my husband away from posting.
State of the roads
Coming back from Studland today, I counted over 25 holes in the roads from the start of Studland village, along the main road and along the seafront and up the High Street as far as the Black Swan pub.
Under half the holes had marks round them for repair and these were confined to a short section of the sea front.
With all the money we all pay in various taxes which are supposed to be used for the transport system, it dosnt look like much of this is actually going into maintaining the current roads.
Perhaps if more people reported seeing new holes in the roads, they could be repaired before they get too big and dangerous for motorbikes, cycles and cars.
Graffiti in Worth Matravers:
Villagers swamped by second homes cheer vandalsLocals feeling isolated by well-heeled influx applaud outbreak of hostile graffiti
Peter Walker The Guardian, Saturday 21 March 2009 Article historyJill Thompson is 71, a churchgoing pillar of her community and not the sort to condone vandalism. But she makes an exception for the still unidentified locals who daubed graffiti condemning second home owners and other incomers on a nearby estate of expensive new houses.
"I don't really make a habit of encouraging criminality," she said on the doorstep of her terrace house in Worth Matravers, one of perhaps 40% of properties in the pretty Dorset village to be occupied all year round. "But if I'd known it was happening I'd have given them the paint."
"And made a cup of tea for them afterwards," added her next-door neighbour, Jan Dart, 55.
This uncommon sympathy for lawbreaking is a symptom of what remains a pressing problem in many rural areas, and one not alleviated by the economic downturn: the crushing lack of affordable housing for local people. A combination of London-style prices in areas with very un-London incomes is slowly killing hundreds of villages, rural campaigners warn.
In the next few weeks, ministers will respond to a report by Matthew Taylor, the MP for Truro and St Austell in Cornwall, who has recommended measures including local trials in which planning permission would be needed to turn residences into holiday homes.
A week ago slogans including "No More 2nd Homes" and "Go Away" appeared overnight on the walls and driveways of the development of four new houses near the centre of Worth Matravers, a village of about 170 properties occupying a glorious spot on hills overlooking the extended inlet that forms Poole harbour. At around £450,000 each, the smart new homes, built from grey-brown Purbeck stone, are aimed at second home purchasers or comfortable retirees from elsewhere, rather than locals in an area where most jobs come from farming, quarrying or tourism. This development attracted extra local ire as it occupies the site of a former craft centre and cafe.
Thomson remembers when the village also had two shops and a post office. These closed, leaving just a pub. "When I walk to the church at 6pm on a winter evening there's hardly a light on in any house. It feels very lonely and not very safe at all," she said. In her experience, few second home owners integrate into local life. "They come down from London, spend two weeks telling us what to do and complaining about the mobile phone signal and then they go home again."
A few minutes away is the duck pond and well-tended green. A 20-year-old local woman, who asked not to be named, was cutting the grass for a local gardening firm. At the end of the day she would return to a caravan, her home for the past three years. "Doing a job like this, it's all I can afford. I couldn't pay the rent on a flat," she said.
According to data collected by the Commissioner for Rural Communities, just over 7% of housing in Purbeck is made up of second homes, among the highest proportions in the country. Mark Sturgess, head of planning for Purbeck council, believes that the real figure is closer to 10%, while in places such as Worth Matravers it could be six times that.
"A lot of places have reached a sort of critical mass, after which local businesses like pubs, post offices and shops can't survive," he said.
Taylor, who delivered his report last July, said affordable housing was "a big issue in the postbag" for MPs in constituencies like his. "There is a general issue about the viability of small communities. With the numbers left living permanently you can't support schools, shops, year-round transport or even year-round pubs."
While Taylor expects the government to back "a great deal" of his report, it has already warned it will not support new planning laws for second homes.
Back in Worth Matravers there is a picturesque terrace cul-de-sac of former workers' cottages, almost all bought and tastefully renovated by holiday owners. To the amusement of some locals the street's name is London Row. One part-time occupier, Roger - whose main home is Sussex - said his ilk got "a pretty bad press at times".
He added: "It's not as if these places were thriving before we arrived. Some of the villages used to be pretty run down, and they've done well from second home owners and holiday rentals."
Roger insists he does take a full part in local life: "I've just got back from being in the pub with my neighbours. I think the people are friendly enough. But then I'm a good mixer in general."
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