Page 22 - BR May 2023

May 2023 May 2023

Second Homes Council Tax LOCAL HEROES
Dorset Councillors have been A new series with interviews from Janey Gordon
discussing proposals for council tax
premiums on second homes and
empty properties, in anticipation of
the new flexibilities for councils in the In Bere Regis there are a number of people who give their time and energies to
forthcoming Levelling Up and support and enrich the local community and individuals who live here. They
Regeneration Bill. At that time, it was contribute freely to the village and are our ‘Local Heroes’.
hoped that the Bill would receive The parish magazine is running a short series about some of these people to find
Royal Assent by 1 April 2023. out a little more about them, how they came to live in the village, what they do
Councillors were due to vote on for it and, also, their own personal interests.
proposals at a rescheduled Full
Council meeting on 30 March in order for the change to be introduced from April
2024, as the council was required to make the decision a year in advance.
It was suggested that I spoke to Pip Evans. I wondered how he came to live in the
However, we now understand from government that there is no likelihood of the village?
Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill becoming law before the end of March and
therefore a decision on this matter could not be taken by Full Council on 30 Janey: Pip, have you always lived in Bere Regis?
March as planned. The proposal to introduce council tax premiums on second Pip: I have had a connection ever since I was a kid. Actually, I was born in
homes and empty properties continues to be something Dorset Council are keen Dorchester and lived in Bovington, but I played a lot of football as a kid, so played
to explore, following constructive discussions at Overview committee and in Bere Regis sometimes. When I got interested in music, I started coming to the
Cabinet. We will watch the progress of the government’s new Levelling Up and Drax Arms to hear the bands play.
Regeneration Bill closely and bring this to Full Council once the legislation has
passed. I moved to the village when I had young kids myself, to be nearer relatives. I
worked for Barclays International and was travelling abroad a lot. I went all over

the place, Europe, North and South America, Australia, Singapore. I added it up
Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) scheme once, I had been to forty countries in all. My kids thought I was a secret agent!
Dorset Council, BCP Council and Public Health Dorset have been awarded I started being active in the village just I after I moved here. The village football
£4,343,000 by central government to upgrade homes and off-grid households team needed a goalkeeper, so I came out of retirement and stepped in. When I
with energy efficiency measures as part of the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) stopped playing I joined The Football Committee. Then I became a school
scheme. governor (twice at both old and new school); became part of the parish plan
committee (the one before last in 2005!) and got involved in the Drax quiz night.
The HUG scheme will provide energy efficiency upgrades and low carbon That was started by the bar manager at that time. She wrote the questions but
heating via local authority funding, to households in England that are low income, got me to read them out. She used to put in questions with nasty pronunciations
off the gas grid or have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) between D and or naughty words and sexy ‘double entendre’ to trip me up! Now I write the
G. You can find more information about the funding on the gov.uk website. questions!

Interest in the quiz has grown. Particularly during lockdown, when I did it once a
Electric Vehicle charging points week online. We had people join in from Manchester, Birmingham, a nephew in
France… we even had a regular ex-villager from San Diego. I try and write the
We aim to provide access to charging points within a 10 minute drive for most questions so everyone can get most of the answers, but then I put in a couple of
residents within 10 years. That’s the target set by Dorset Council which has real ticklers each round. There are no prizes, it’s just a fun quiz on first Thursday of
announced ‘ambitious plans’ to expand the charge points into villages and rural the month at the Royal Oak.
locations across the local authority network. The announcement comes as part of
the council’s ‘Charging Ahead’ policy which switches the focus from the county’s

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