DOWNLOADING photographs taken around Bridport over Christmas, I suddenly found myself looking twice at this one, and wondering - what is that in the sky? Could it really be a UFO?
Photograph taken near West Milton in Dorset on 28 December, 2010.
Here’s a closer look.
Closer up view of object in the sky photographed near West Milton in Dorset on 28 December, 2010.
I have to say, I don’t think it’s a UFO – it must be the moon – but I’ve never seen it in quite this guise before.
DORSET COUNTY COUNCIL is planning to save £4,000 a year by giving up its membership of the Assembly of European Regions (AER).
The move is part of the council’s efforts to save £48.6 million over the next three years. Dorset is one of only three UK local authorities to belong to AER
It’s good when it comes, but Michel Hooper-Immins has to wait for his beef and his beer.
TOURISM in Bridport looks set to receive a massive boost with the building of a new 60-room hotel.
Plans are well underway for the Travelodge group, owned by Dubai International Capital, to open a new, purpose-built operation on the site of the old Mountjoy School once it has closed in Flood Lane and moved to its new building in Beaminster, which is due to take place in 2012.
The budget hotel would certainly attract many new holidaymakers to the area and offer accommodation to business visitors to West Dorset.
As well as this, a hotel of this size, open all year, would give a much-needed boost to local job and training prospects at a time when these are in short supply throughout the whole region.
The whole plan would give a huge lift to the local economy but is certain to attract opposition from many.
It is understood that a formal planning application is to be made in the fairly near future.
Editor’s Note: Travelodge is the fastest growing budget hotel chain in the country with over 390 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain.
Comments have been sought from Travelodge, Dorset County Council (who own Mountjoy) and West Dorset District Council (who would deal with a planning application), and this story will be updated. (Snow is delaying some matters). PLEASE SEE BELOW!
If you’d like to comment, please do.
UPDATED December 21, 2010:
Dorset County Council’s cabinet member for children’s services Toni Coombs said: ”At present we have no plans to sell the Mountjoy School site. It will be at least 18 months before the school moves.
“We are assessing the use of the site, but this needs to be done in relation to our provision of services for older people in the area.
“Our priority is building the new school in Beaminster and giving Mountjoy pupils the brand new facilities they desperately need and deserve.”
DORSET COUNTY COUNCIL appears to be the only local authority in the country getting an increased government grant.
Dorset can look forward to an increase of 0.25 per cent for 2011/12.
So does this mean that Dorset will not have to make cuts? That proposals to slash 500 jobs will be abandoned?
The answer would seem to be NO.
English local government finance is famously a very, very complicated subject, and county council officers will be making all sorts of fresh calculations before a Cabinet meeting on December 15, but it looks like not all that much will change.
Why?
Because Dorset still has to make big reductions. And county council officers – and, one must presume, the council’s ruling Conservatives – want to get on with the job.
The crucial paragraph of the Cabinet agenda paper is 2.3.
“Availability of the grant settlement should not change the Council’s approach to achieving spending reductions.
“Our relatively low dependence on grant means that most of the current funding shortfall arises from factors other than potential cuts in grant.
“The need to allow for slippage in some aspects of the savings programme and the requirement for further savings in subsequent years mean that all opportunities identified should be pursued as vigorously as possible, whatever the outcome of the 2011-12 grant settlement.”
To give an example of what this means in practice: the county council is hoping to transfer 20 libraries to communities and volunteers, but – see paragraph 6.2 – “experience to date has indicated that this will be very difficult to achieve in any realistic timescale.”
So unless there is a sudden change of approach, the council will still seek to make cuts of £17 million in 2011/12, because it believes that it is the wisest policy – long-term, medium-term, and short-term.
Paragraph 4.4:
“If the settlement does not require a figure of this magnitude in 2011-12 (e.g. if the ‘front-loading’ is less than feared), it is proposed that a savings target of £17M be pursued in any case given:
a) The Comprehensive Spending Review requires savings in the order of an additional £26M on top of MFC [Meeting Future Challenges] by 2013-14, so proposals in this report will need to be pursued regardless of whether the shortfall is worse in 2011-12 or not;
b) Many of the proposals will be very difficult to achieve in the time-frames available anyway, so it is advisable to aim to exceed the savings targets than face a large over-spend;
c) Our communities and our staff deserve as much clarity as soon as possible and this can best be achieved by a single major change programme rather than having repeated changes year on year, with the uncertainties that generates.”
Put another way – the scene is potentially set for a huge political battle in Dorset in the run-up to next year’s council elections.
UP TO 500 JOBS will go next year at Dorset County Council and there will be “significant impacts on services to individuals and communities.”
The council has to reduce spending by £45-50 million over the next three years – that’s £15 – 20 million more than first expected.
And that £15-20 million extra has to be cut next year.
Hence the job losses planned for 2011-12. Hence the huge list of other possible cuts laid out in an agenda paper published today on dorsetforyou.com at http://bit.ly/eT8F93
@realwestdorset on Twitter outlined the county council’s plans on Wednesday morning, and more details follow below, but there is no substitute for reading the full breakdown at http://bit.ly/eT8F93
The county council says that previous money-saving programmes have been “focused on efficiency and transformational changes, without major impact on service delivery”.
But now: “To achieve the level of saving now required it is inevitable that there will be significant impacts on services to individuals and communities.
“The Council will try to adopt the ‘Big Society’ approach and enable others to take over services rather than cut them altogether, but has had little success so far with similar initiatives.”
Libraries are a case in point.
The county council asserts that it can no longer afford to maintain a branch network of 34 libraries. It hopes that volunteers may run up to 20, following the model established in Burton Bradstock – but Burton Bradstock is unusual. The council admits that “experience to date” indicates that getting communities to run libraries will be “very difficult to achieve in any realistic timescale.”
So – despite West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin acclaiming his constituency as one of the main inspirations for “the ‘Big Society’ approach” – Dorset is entering uncharted teritory and lots still has to be worked out.
For example, it’s not yet been calculated exactly how substantial the “substantial expenditure for redundancy compensation payments” will be.
The council also expects that “Some additional temporary resource in HR may be needed to facilitate staff restructuring.”
@CoogarUK on Twitter found it “laughable”… “having to create some new jobs to help get rid of the existing ones.”
Few victims have yet been publicly identified, but 8 jobs will go in communications and customer services.
About 20 jobs will go in the ‘service support cost centre’ in Adult & Community Services.
The number of trading standards officers may be cut, and two of the 12 Registrars Offices may be shut.
Support to adults with physical, mental and learning disabilities is seen as the area with the “greatest scope for significant savings”.
In practice this means – for example – providing fewer “simple aids for daily living to support people in their homes.”
It means “rationalising the management structure that supports the Learning Disability Day Services, and withdrawing the subsidy for transport and hot meals to the Centres.”
Older people attending day centres may also have transport subsidies withdrawn.
The number of day centres may be cut.
Affecting younger people, there are plans to “reduce the coordination of after-school, holiday, homework and breakfast clubs”.
Foster carers will get lower loyalty payments.
Fewer support services will be provided to families with children experiencing difficulties.
The list goes on and on.
The county council is proposing to stop supporting district & borough councils on affordable housing issues.
Funding will be reduced for economic development, tourism, the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Dorset Road Safety Partnership, Drug Action & Community Safety initiatives, museums, the Dorset History Centre, the careers advice service, and the school improvement service.
In line with “the ‘Big Society’ approach” it’s hoped that volunteers will come forward, not just to run libraries, but operate school crossing patrols and maintain footpaths.
Note: There are almost 3000 miles of public rights of way in Dorset, made up of roughly 4700 footpaths, 1700 bridleways and 37 byways open to all traffic…
NEW plans for the redevelopment of Bridport’s historic South West Quadrant are to go on show on Friday, December 10. People are invited to view landowners Haywards’ latest proposals for the St Michael’s Trading Estate area in the Red Brick Café between about 11am and 2pm. Haywards’ last scheme – for a mix of 175 new homes and commercial “regeneration” opportunities – was intensely controversial.