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February 2018 February 2018
Our Next Conservation Working Parties – Come and Join Us
The next working parties will be held on:
Saturday 3rd February 2018 and Saturday 3rd March 2018.
Spring is almost upon us, so spring into action and come and join us on one of our
conservation working parties. We have a range of jobs to do alongside the
stream, including coppicing trees, laying hedges and clearing undergrowth to
allow wild flowers to flourish. Your help will conserve the best of what is already
there and make the stream and its environs even more wildlife friendly.
We meet by the stream bridge near to the Scout Hut, Elder Road at 10am or you
can find us along the river. We normally finish about 12.30. All are welcome –
young (under 16s should be accompanied by an adult) or old, active or less so –
there are tasks for all. If you have some loppers or hand saws please bring them
with you – if you don’t, no problem we’ll have some spares along with other tools.
Souls Moor Nature Reserve
Read about the success of the Souls Moor Nature Reserve in the Parish Council
section of this magazine.
Contact Us
If you would like to know more about the work of the Wildlife and Environment
Group or to be included on our mailing list, please contact:
Tony Bates at tonybates19@gmail.com / 01929 471563 or
Mike Gee at mike.gee@tesco.net / 0775 988 4942.
When you respond to advertisers, do please tell them you saw
their advert in this magazine - it helps them monitor the
effectiveness of their advert and helps us generate more
advertising revenue!!
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loss of £90m from our net budget – which for 2017/18 is only £264m. Dorset’s
spending power is £629 per resident, behind the shire county average of £703, the
England average of £774 and the average London Borough at £947.
Negative RSG as a concept is inappropriate; it cannot be right that some
authorities are returning what is effectively locally-generated tax to central
government. It is also an unfair tax, just four authorities pay 40% of the total
negative RSG bill of the whole country (Dorset’s share is 7%).
Revenue Support Grants, or any other grants, should not be able to fall below
zero. This unfairly impacts Dorset and I would ask all of you to pass that message
to your Member of Parliament.
Dorset Waste Partnership
The Dorset Waste Partnership has been working hard to optimise its collection
rounds in order to increase efficiency and make savings. Part of this work includes
reviewing their Garden Waste collections. This will result in some Dorset residents
experiencing changes to their Garden Waste collection days from 5 February
2018.
The DWP will be writing directly to all affected households, clearly explaining their
new collection dates before the new rounds come into effect. Approximately
19,000 households will be affected, with the majority of households (around 4,300 )
affected being in Christchurch and East Dorset (over 8,000), although many
areas across Dorset are affected including over 1000 properties in Weymouth. If a
customer does not receive a letter, they should assume their collection dates are
unaffected. Any queries should be sent to:
gardenwaste@dorsetwastepartnership.gov.uk
While this activity only affects the fortnightly, paid for, brown Garden Waste bins
please note that they are also making changes to some rubbish and recycling
rounds in the North Dorset area in the coming weeks. They will be communicating
with councillors and residents about these changes separately.
Surgery
Surgeries are held on the first Saturday of every month. These are held at the
communal Lounge in Turberville Court in Bere Regis from 09.30 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. If
you cannot make one of these please email me and I will arrange to come round
to see you. If you have any questions or queries related to the business of Dorset
County Council please come along. If anyone wants to contact me and cannot
get to the surgery my email address is peterwharf@hotmail.com.
Peter Wharf, County Councillor
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