January 2020
The Parish Council met on Thursday 9th January 2020 at the Drax Hall.
Three members of the public were present.
The next meeting will be on Thursday 13th February at the Drax Hall, starting at 7pm.
All parishioners are very welcome to attend and to take the opportunity to raise any matters or concerns at the start of the meeting.
Parking
There have been concerns raised not just by residents but also from the refuse collectors who have difficulty negotiating the junction of Snow Hill and Barrow Hill due to inconsiderate parking in that area.
As a result, the area used as a pull-in will be blocked to prevent parking there.
We would ask residents to park more considerately.
Barrow Hill Paddock Planning Application
We were pleased to hear that the planning application for two houses to built in the paddock at Barrow Hill and Tower Hill has been refused by Dorset Council as it is not in conformity with the Bere Regis Neighbourhood Plan.
Lengthsman’s Work
Some parishioners have queried what the Lengthsman does and what his priorities are. We will be publishing more detailed information soon, but here are some statistics about his work in the quarter to the end of December last year:
Cemetery maintenance 117 hours 30%
Streamside, verges and gullies cleaning and cutting 143 hours 38%
Play area maintenance 46 hours 12%
Picking up litter and dog faeces 57 hours 15%
One litter picking sweep along the streamside, through Souls Moor and on Snow hill collected more than 150 bottles.
The entirely avoidable cost of litter and poo picking amounts to a cost of nearly £1000 in that quarter alone.
We would ask residents to take more care over our environment so the lengthsman’s time and our money can be applied to more beneficial work.
Dark Lane
The evidence documents to establish the footpath from Dark Lane, Shitterton to the top of Black Hill have been re-submitted to Dorset Council rights of way department.
Community Event
In June last year the Council organised the Mid-Summer Bere Fest, a very successful community event on the Recreation Ground which raised substantial sums for our local clubs and organisations.
If there is anyone who would like to take on the leadership of a similar event for this year or for 2021, the Council would happily provide admin support and guidance to an organising committee.
Please get in touch with Ian Ventham or our clerk if you are willing to get involved.
Climate Change
Whilst we recognise our contribution as a Council and as a community is likely to be modest, we are anxious to play a sensible role in trying to reduce our impact on climate change.
We have set up a working group firstly to take a look at what the Council itself might do, and then in due course to identify what sensible measures we might promote across the parish.
I am sure we will be asking for parishioners to contribute to these discussions in due course, but if there is anything you feel you want to suggest at this point, please feel free to pass any thoughts to the Clerk.
Village Forum
We will be holding a Village Forum on Saturday 16th May, in the School Hall, starting at 11am.
We would ask everyone to note the date, and community organisations to think about taking the opportunity to report on their activities and programmes.
February 2020
The Parish Council met on Thursday 13th February 2020 at the Drax Hall. 15 members of the public were present.
The next meeting will be on Thursday 12th March at the Drax Hall, starting at 7pm.
All parishioners are very welcome to attend and to take the opportunity to raise any matters or concerns at the start of the meeting.
Parish Forum
We will be holding our annual Parish Forum for all residents to attend on Saturday May 16th at the School.
The agenda will probably include:
• A talk about May’s Wood by Anne Brummer, Chief Executive of the Save Me Trust, a conservation and wildlife charity established by Dr Bryan May
• A talk by Michael Tomlinson MP
• Presentation of local volunteer awards
• Presentation about the need to cherish and conserve our local SSSI, Black Hill (tbc)
All community organisations are cordially invited to attend and to set up stands to promote their activities to residents.
White Lovington Development
Following the submission of plans by the developer of the site at White Lovington, the council heard from a number of residents who were displeased at the increase of numbers of houses from the number set out in the Neighbourhood Plan.
Following discussions, the council agreed unanimously that because the application did not conform with the Neighbourhood Plan, it would inform Dorset Council that it could not support the planning application in its present form.
Bere Regis Calendars
The council were delighted to announce that the 2020 version of the annual Bere Regis Calendar, from which profits are being donated to The Ed Kent Trust, sold a total of 161 calendars, raising the fantastic sum of £405 for the charity, which helps local young people with funding in the sports and music areas.
Play Park Resurfacing
Having researched many solutions to the replacement of the woodchip bark in the Play Park, the council agreed to purchase rubber chippings to replace the bark with.
Made from recycled tyres, this bark gives both a safer surface for children to play on and a more environmentally beneficial solution.
We hope it may also deter cats from using the bark as a litter tray!
VE Day Celebrations
There are a number of celebrations being planned by organisations within the village to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of VE Day on Friday 8th May.
Further details will be released nearer the time, but ideas under discussion include a 40s themed tea dance, run by Scouts, along with a ceremonial ringing of the church bells and a lighting of the Beacon, followed by an outdoor ecumenical service of thanksgiving.
If residents in areas around the village wish to hold their own street parties, or organisations wish to add to the events to mark the occasion, the council will be delighted to help with any planning and road closures involved with this.
East Devon and Dorset National Park
The Council heard an enthusiastic talk from a member of the team behind the proposed new National Park in Dorset and East Devon. There are many potential benefits, and some possible pitfalls, that could be had from forming a new National Park and we look forward to monitoring the progress of their application as it goes through the next stages.
March 2020
The Parish Council met on Thursday 12th March 2020 at the Drax Hall.
14 members of the public were present.
The next meeting will be on Thursday 16th April at the Drax Hall, starting at 7pm.
All parishioners are very welcome to attend and to take the opportunity to raise any matters or concerns at the start of the meeting.
Parish Forum Saturday 16th May
We hope to be holding (subject to whatever restrictions are by then in force) our annual Parish Forum for all residents to attend on Saturday May 16th at the School.
The agenda will include:
• A talk about May’s Wood by Anne Brummer, Chief Executive of the Save Me Trust, a conservation and wildlife charity established by Dr Bryan May
• A talk by Michael Tomlinson MP
• Presentation of local volunteer awards
• Presentation about the need to cherish and conserve our local SSSI, Black Hill.
All community organisations are cordially invited to attend and to set up stands to promote their activities to residents.
Bere Heath Broadband
We heard from a resident in Bere Heath about an initiative he and the other residents in that area have taken to investigate having fibre optic broadband capabilities extended to serve the 6 houses in the area who presently do not have broadband.
The cost to do this will be approximately £2,000, and the Parish Council has offered a grant of £900 to the company which they have had to set up to facilitate this, to go towards the cost and ensure that all future residents in that area will also benefit from these amenities.
Digital Champions
Councillors Ventham and Mathers have recently joined Dorset Council’s Digital Champions scheme, which aims to help get older residents skilled in using computers and the internet, and we hope in due course to be able to run a workshop or even regular meeting, within the village.
VE Day Celebrations Friday 8th May
There are a number of celebrations being planned (subject to whatever restrictions are by then in force) by organisations within the village to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of VE Day on Friday 8th May.
Further details will be released nearer the time, but the Scouts will be holding events during the day and into the evening, along with a ceremonial ringing of the church bells and a lighting of the Beacon.
If residents in areas around the village wish to hold their own street parties to mark the occasion, the council will be delighted to help with any planning and road closures involved with this.
Open Spaces
In addition to some scrub clearance, the environment and wildlife group has this month completed the coppicing of a section of the of the overstood hazels along Bere Stream between the Shitterton road bridge and the Jubilee bridge.
This will allow much more light to reach the stream which will benefit the rich aquatic life that our stream is well known for.
It also creates an attractive alternative pathway close to the stream. We would like to thank the small but energetic group of volunteers who done a great job to improve our environment.
APRIL 2020
The Parish Council met very briefly by video conferencing on Thursday 9th April.
This was by way of experimenting with the technology with which most of us are unfamiliar, and to discuss how our future meetings can be made accessible to the public.
If you have any questions for a future meeting, please email them as detailed below.
COVID19
Members discussed the range of measures that had been put in place by the Parish Council and others to assist residents during the pandemic, under the banner of BereConnect, and were satisfied that at present there was little more we could do.
Rowlands Wait Caravan Park
The council was very unhappy that planning law makes no distinction between towed caravans occupying pitches at a touring site for a week or two at a time, and so-called mobile homes occupied by year-round residents.
The owners of the site are proceeding with works at the site authorised by a Certificate of Lawfulness issue by the then Purbeck District Council in December 2018.
We resolved to write to our MP with a view to facilitating a change in the law, and to engage with Natural England and Dorset Council, to voice our concerns.
The Annual Meeting
The next meeting on Thursday 14th May, should be our Annual Meeting, which would normally include the election of officers.
Central Government has decided that Town and Parish Councils can choose to delay the meeting until May 2021 or until later in 2020 when councillors are able to meet.
We have chosen to delay the meeting until the Autumn of 2020.
In addition, all current office holders, i.e. Chairs and Vice Chairs and Committee members, should remain in post if possible, until that time.
Our next meeting will, therefore, take the shape of a normal monthly meeting, which will be held by video conferencing.
Residents are invited to submit questions to the Clerk or a Councillor by email by the 10th May.
The question will then be read out at the meeting and a response given.
The meeting will then be streamed via the Parish Council website in order for residents to hear the response to their questions.
Councillors contact details can be found at https://www.bereregisparishcouncil.co.uk/about…
/councillors/
This is all still very new and strange to everyone, so we would ask your indulgence and forgive us if it takes a meeting or two to get things right.