Wind farm

Details about the proposed offshore wind farm, including some impressive images of what it would look like.

Swanage Pier

What is in store for the pier? Rumours are rife with different theories! It seems possible that the new committee do not want divers on the pier. WHAT!!! If that is true how will they manage to sustain the upkeep of the pier without the income from the divers! Swanage is renowned for the good diving conditions and also helps Swanage as a town (divers staying in b&b's, spending money,etc). Will the pier become another white elephant like the Mowlem?
There is a meeting at the Mowlem on Thursday 26 January at 2.30 Where the committee will outline their proposed plans. If you are concerned about the future of the pier please try to attend.



Posted by Anonymous to swanageview at 21/1/12 4:33 PM

New events venue, the British Legion

Swanage gets a new Cultural Hub: a New lease of Life for The British Legion!

The Rock-A-Hula Club, the brainchild behind the incredibly successful Swanage Comedy Festival and resident Friday night DJs upstairs at the East Bar, are bringing a new lease of life to one of Swanage’s most unlikely venues, The Royal British Legion. Swanage residents Dave Taylor and Jack Daniels are breathing life into the region and the Legion, enticing acts from across the spectrum of the UK's cultural landscape from blues, Jazz, Folk, to one off comedy nights etc.

The venue is an interesting choice, but Dave says:
We were looking for a positive partnership with a venue, where we could develop ideas and explore what would work for visitors and the local community. We have had fantastic feed back from comedians that have appeared there during the Comedy Festivals, who have said how great the space is. We already have had some sell out shows there, and there are going to be plenty more in the coming year. The organisers are also incredibly positive. It reminds me of the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club in East London which manages to still be a successful Working Men's Club but has cutting edge entertainment.

Rock-A-Hula's aim is to book comedy, music, live theatre, kids shows, cabaret etc, as well as a rehearsal space that should introduce more original music to the area. Music classes are planned such as drum and Ukulele workshops, with plans for The school of Rock-A-Hula launching at Easter. The venue also began an indoor market, 'Bizarre Bazaar' just before Christmas with more events planned for in 2012.
This has taken some investment but Dave says:We have invested in a good PA and sound-desk and changing the lighting, we would like to get our name on the national gig circuit, and the only way to achieve this is, is to provide great facilities to entice touring acts. We aim to work with major agencies in the entertainment business. It will be a great benefit to the community and give something unique to our visitors.
Dave Elm, Entertainment Officer says:Over the past 2 years Swanage Royal British Legion has been making continual improvements and we see the partnership with Rock-A-Hula as positive step forward. We want the club to continue to grow and by dramatically improving our Live entertainment, we can increase membership and have a club the members can feel proud of.

The venue has 200 free tickets available at www.eventbrite.com for Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons on Feb 18th , with acts from the Blues Festival and the Comedy Festival following in March. The venue then officially opens with Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band on 7th April. Geno will be performing his own material plus lots of soul classics, a co-promotion with the new Swanage 5050 Club.

Events for all up and coming shows can be booked at the Legions box office, that will be open from midday till 11pm. Tickets will also be available via the Swanage T.I.C plus online through ticketing agencies such as wegottickets.com & eventbrite.com. Shows are not prohibited to Legion members, however membership to the Swanage British Legion Club is £20 a year and will offer great incentives such as discounted gigs pre- event alerts etc. For full details check out www.rockahulaclub.co.uk

The Heartstring Quartet, Studland, Sunday 26 Feb

Tickets are now on sale for the next Artsreach event at Studland, which is on Sunday 26th February.

The Heartstring Quartet: Arty McGlynn (guitar), Chris Newman (guitar/ mandolin), Nollaig Casey (fiddle/vocal) and Máire Ní Chathasaigh (Irish harp)
"A tightrope walk into uncommon worlds... This is traditional music at its very best: crossing boundaries, tapping our own tunes alongside bluegrass and ragtime borrowings. Many lifetimes' worth of music."

Máire and Chris's visit to Studland in Feb 2010 was a sell out and as one of only two shows in the whole of the south there is bound to be high demand for this event. Catch them at Studland because they're then off to tour America!

PDF file of the flyer attached.

More at www.oldbridgemusic.com and www.hearstringsessions.com

Please note that on this occasion tickets are priced at £12

TICKETS CAN BE RESERVED BY PHONE OR PURCHASED IN PERSON FROM STUDLAND STORES 01929 450204

The Artsreach Programme for the whole of Dorset can be seen at http://www.artsreach.co.uk/programme/programme.php
and you can join the Artsreach mailing list (for all events in Dorset) at http://www.artsreach.co.uk/mailing_list.php

Stephen Yeoman
on behalf of Studland Village Hall

Olympics

How will Swanage benefit from the Olympics?



Posted by Robin from Swanage to swanageview at 15/1/12 2:

Broadband upgrade

On 16-Jan-12, BT will be upgrading your local exchange to give you a better broadband service. You should get an improved, more consistent connection, and your speed might improve too.

RobO



Posted by Anonymous to swanageview at 13/1/12 9:42 AM

Prospect Business Park?

Has anyone heard if and when the new business units which where going to be build next to the new recycling center are going to be built and ready to use? I contacted the developers back in 2010 with view to buying or renting one and was told that they would be ready early 2011, then summer, then winter and now some time this year!

I know of 3 other businesses who want to expand from home offices to larger premises and these would be ideal.



Posted by Local Resident to swanageview at 12/1/12 4:38 PM

Swanage Community Partnership meeting 20 Jan

Quarterly Meeting
20th January 2012 @ 10am
Swanage Town Hall
1. Welcome
2. Apologies,
3. Minutes of 20th October 2011 meeting
4. Matters Arising
5. Housing Challenges- Chris McDermott PDC
6. Swanage Area Action Plan
7. Updates, to include:
a. Health and Adult care
b. Education Swanage
c. Environment Exposition
d. De Moulham Trust
8. Gyspy and Traveller site consultation
9. Diamond Jubilee celebration
10. AOB
11. Date of next meeting

Minutes of last meeting: http://tinyurl.com/88uf44v
'Themes' for Partnership: http://tinyurl.com/76cj978

Wind farm consultation 21st Feb

Eneco has now entered the formal consultation period for the project and will be holding eight public exhibitions to provide people with information and updates on Navitus Bay, along with the next steps. There will also be an opportunity to speak with a member of the development team and provide feedback on the proposals.

The public exhibitions will be held at the following venues and times:

Swanage: Mowlem Theatre – Tuesday 21stFebruary 2012, 2pm to 8pm
Poole: RNLI Lifeboat College – Wednesday 22nd February 2012, 2pm to 8pm
Christchurch: Christchurch Borough Council Chambers – Thursday 23rd February 2012, 2pm to 8pm
Bournemouth: Pavilion Theatre – Saturday 25th February 2012, 10am to 4pm
West Moors: West Moors Memorial Hall – Tuesday 28th February 2012, 2pm to 8pm
New Milton: New Milton Memorial Centre – Wednesday 29th February 2012, 2pm to 8pm
Lymington: Lymington Community Centre – Friday 2nd March 2012, 2pm to 8pm
Newport, Isle of Wight: Riverside Centre – Saturday 3rd March 2012, 10 am to 4pm

The final design of Navitus Bay Wind Park, both onshore and offshore, will be determined only after comprehensive consultation with the public and relevant organisations throughout the formal consultation period of the project which will last until the end of 2013.

If you are unable to attend any of the public exhibitions, but would like more information, please visit the website at www.navitusbaywindpark.co.uk. Alternatively, contact Eneco at either of the addresses below.
By post to: Round 3 development, Eneco Wind UK Ltd, 3 Athena Court, Athena Drive, Tachbrook Park, Warwick CV34 6RT.
Or by email to: info@enecowindoffshore.co.uk

NHS Dentist cover

My parents had a letter today from the Regency dental practice Swanage telling us that they are no longer going to be serving NHS patients and we need to pay a private subscription + costs for each visit. It seems that the nearest NHS dentist now who are taking on new patients are either in Dorchester or Weymouth. The ones in Poole and Bournemouth who are showing as taking on NHS work are saying they are full. Shouldn’t a town the size of Swanage have at least one NHS dentist so the people who cant get to Dorchester or Weymouth can get dental treatment without being ripped off after years of paying tax for the NHS ?



Posted by Local Resident to swanageview at 7/1/12 10:00 PM

Swanage Railway

Swanage Water Tower

The Swanage Railway is planning to replace the existing water tower with a London and South Western Railway water tower from Salisbury built in the 19th Century. It will have a Portland stone base and a gable roof like the original Swanage water tower. This will extract water by reverse osmosis rather than taking the supply from the mains. Dorset County Council will supply a grant provided that the work will be completed by mid 2012. Do you think the building will blend in well with the existing buildings in Swanage?



Posted by Robin from Swanage to swanageview at 7/1/12 9:49 PM

New subject

If you want to raise a new topic, post your comment here — 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. And any posts that become too provocative, insulting, threatening or otherwise unpleasant will be deleted.

Comments

Do you think people should be able to post anonymously? Myself, I would rather have people making comments than feeling it's too much hassle. But on the other hand, it would be interesting to know if particular individuals, using whatver name/s, are making posts.

As far as I can see the only way to do this seems to be to require people to be 'registered users', in which case visitors will be prompted to log into Blogger before leaving a comment. If they don't have an account, they can create one.

Of course, people could use any name they like, not necessarily their real one, but at least we might know which names are posting comments.

What do you think? Should we try this?

The Co-op

Swanage co-op: welcome to The Gulag

Another new year, and another five day stretch of empty shelves in co-op. A display of fresh goods that any Russian store would have been proud of 30 years ago.

The years most predictable event (the end of he year) not only bought the anticipated crowds, empty shelves, but also some underhand cad like behaviour in the store.

Today my wife managed to get the last two (yes two) peppers, smiled and enjoyed her little shopping victory in the face of such adversity, but upon arrival at the checkout found only one pepper in her basket.

Someone had taken her pepper from the basket! Filched her fruit, pinched her pepper... Shocking.

Co-op will tell us they lack storage space. I would point them at the vacant business units in town. They either don't know what they are doing, or don't give a hoot.

"Когда мы вешаем капиталисты продадут нам веревку"
“When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope”
But only if they have any in stock.



Posted by Anonymous to swanageview at 3/1/12 7:17 PM

Shore Road incident?

I see the police have cordoned off Shore Road; I'm told there was a stabbing/glassing on New Year's Eve. Anyone know any more details?