A key policy at the last General Election for the Lib Dems was to bring in a ‘Pupil Premium’ to help children from poorer backgrounds get a better education.

Last autumn Liberal Democrats in government were able to announce that every school would get £488 a year per pupil who was eligible for free school meals.

Across West Dorset that means £617,002 of new funding available to local schools.

“So, in spite of the harsh economic climate and public sector cuts, most of our schools will be better off,” says County Councillor Trevor Jones. “This is just the start. The Pupil Premium will more than treble by 2015.” This is an effective example of Liberal Democrats making a real difference in government!

What the Pupil Premium will mean this year:

Full details are contained in the attached spreadsheet PUPIL-PREMIUM-ALLOCATIONS-TO-SCHOOLS-2011-12.xls.

	to a 10% cut in the District’s Council Tax
	to keeping open Day Care Centres
	to saving School Crossing Patrols
	to building more Affordable Homes
	to keeping open local libraries

West Dorset Liberal Democrats can afford to do all this by:

• cancelling Conservative plans to spend £10 million on new Council Offices, £6 million on a new Dorchester Library and up to £4 million on a new Dorchester Park & Ride
• using some of the £50 million in investments that the Conservative Council has built up ‘for a rainy day’ and
• merging local councils, as they have done in Cornwall and Wiltshire recently, which independent experts have estimated will save £20 million

“On May 5th either the Liberal Democrats will be in control of West Dorset District Council, the new Council Offices will be cancelled and local services will be saved or the Conservatives will be back again, the Offices will be built and the cuts will go ahead. No other result is possible here.”

The proposed new development includes a new library building for Dorset County Council. It’s not an additional library, but a replacement for the existing building in Dorchester. That will cost the County Council a projected £4 million. Meanwhile, the Council is planning significant cuts to its book budget and is considering closing village libraries.

At the same time, Dorset County Council has a £4.2 million deficit on its adult social care budget and expects that to rise to £6 million. That will hit the old, the infirm and the disabled. Is building a new library when there is nothing wrong with the old one the right priority?

If you want to send a message to the councillors who will be making the decision without having to speak at the meeting, come and join us on the steps of County Hall at 2pm. I’m expecting a large number of people to be there to demonstrate that this planned expenditure of somewhere between £10 million and £15 million of our money does not have public support.

Don’t forget that all the councillors are up for election in May 2011 – that will give every voter a chance to give their opinion about the decision that is made on 28th September!

Have your say

We, the people who will have to pay for the offices, do at least have an opportunity to comment on the planning application. Unfortunately, whether or not the new offices make sense financially is not considered relevant to the planning process. However, we can at least have our say on the design.

It is definitely worth lodging an objection; the application will be discussed by a committee of elected Councillors and they do have the power to refuse planning consent even if the Council’s officers recommend approval. The Councillors need to know how strongly people feel about this and any member of the public who submits a written comment has the right to speak for up to three minutes at the meeting.

We need to encourage the Councillors to be brave on this issue and stand up for the people who elected them rather than just meekly do what they are told.

How to do it

The planning application has the reference 1/D/10/000763. You can go into Stratton House and ask to see the plans, they are also available online.

There are two ways that you can comment:

1. by post to Andrew Martin, WDDC, Stratton House, 58-60 High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1UZ or;
2. online at www.dorsertforyou.com, the link takes you to West Dorset’s planning applications page, where you need to input the reference above.

All comments must be received by the Council by June 18th at the latest and don’t forget to use the reference number in all correspondence.

The new Council offices are part of a major redevelopment scheme for Charles Street and the plans are for the whole scheme. You can object to the offices without commenting on the rest of the scheme or you can have your say on other elements of the development as well.

What is considered relevant in planning terms

Only comments on the design of the building, its impact on the surrounding area and whether it conforms to the Council’s own planning policies will be considered.

You could, for example, object on one or more of the following grounds:

• the building is detrimental to the character and appearance of Dorchester’s conservation area on the grounds of its size, height and/or length;
• the building will overshadow South Walks which is a scheduled ancient monument;
• the attempt to build offices on Charles Street is contrary to policy EA14 in the local plan which says there should only be shopping, leisure/arts/tourism uses or housing on this site;
• the design of the office building has no local distinctiveness which is contrary to policy DA3;
• the design is significantly larger than nearby buildings which is contrary to policy DA5;
• the design is not sympathetic or in keeping with the surrounding area contrary to policy DA7;
• there is a loss of trees and of open space in what is otherwise a fairly built up area.

Just use your own words to express your views. The more objections the better and the more likely that Councillors will throw out the application.

Our online poll is still open for people to vote Yes or No on the new offices. If you haven’t already voted, go to officespoll.org.uk. Tell your friends!

West Dorset District Council Offices

There has been a huge demand for a repeat of the public consultation opportunity which Dr Sue Farrant provided in Dorchester on 24 March.

She has now ararnged another meeting to be held in Bridport Town Hall on Monday 19 April starting at 6.30 pm.

This will give people an opportunity to ask questions about the Council’s scheme and to air their views.

Sue Farrant has invited Cllr Robert Gould, Leader of WDDC and prime mover of the scheme and Oliver Letwin MP.

“I think it is important that they both hear what people have to say about this,” she said. “Both Mr Letwin and Cllr Gould are supporting the proposal to build new offices and are claiming that it will save money in the long run. The response from the first meeting made it clear that council tax payers are not at all convinced!”

All are welcome at the meeting.

Strange then that the public meeting organised by Dr Sue Farrant, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate, was packed out with hundreds of people wanting to know more and to have their say.

The Council also says that it has public support for their multi-million pound scheme. Their plan is to move out of historic Stratton House in Dorchester and into specially-built offices off Charles Street. A senior Council officer recently said the cost could be £15 million although the Council’s official figure is £10.5 million.

The meeting on 24 March heard the WDDC’s financial case for the move pulled apart by a series of speakers. They included a previous WDDC architect who told the meeting that it was perfectly possible and a great deal cheaper to adapt Stratton House to meet the Council’s needs.

In final show of hands, not a single person there agreed with the Council’s plans.

The prime movers of the scheme, Councillor Robert Gould, the Council’s Leader, and the Chief Executive, had refused to come to the meeting to answer people’s questions, despite repeated invitations from Sue Farrant.

Sue Farrant has now written to Cllr Gould telling him that he does not have public support for building new Council offices at public expense. She has called on him to abandon it now rather than waste even more public money on trying to push the scheme through.

Tree planting in Dorchester

Sue Farrant supports Dorchester and Weymouth Greenpeace as they plant a Cox’s Orange Pippin alongside the allotments at Riverside Walk. The Dorchester tree is twinned with one at Sipson, birthplace of the Cox’s Orange Pippin and now the proposed site for the Heathrow third runway. Sue has become one of 60,000 beneficial owners of ‘Airplot’ a parcel of land at Sipson ow planted with trees as a symbol of opposition to the runway.

Local campaigners highlight their access issue to Dr Sue Farrant

Dr Sue Farrant, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for West Dorset, visited Poundbury and Maiden Castle at the invitation of the Poundbury Rural Access Campaign headed by Peter Evans. Mr Evans explained that the Duchy of Cornwall’s plans for the further development of Poundbury did not include the rural access to Maiden Castle under the Dorchester bypass envisaged in the 2006 Poundbury Development Brief. Instead the Duchy were proposing a convoluted route alongside the bypass to an existing footpath to the north west of Maiden Castle or funnelling residents along the inside of the bypass to Maiden Castle Road.

Dave Green, South Dorset Ramblers Countryside Secretary, pointed out that Maiden Castle Road is single track with narrow unmaintained verges and cannot safely cope with the present mix of cars and coaches with recreational users, let alone the extra burden that will be imposed by 5000 new Poundbury residents.

He told Dr Farrant that the Ramblers’ objectives are to see that the Poundbury Development Brief is fully implemented in its detail as well as its spirit and that all paths included in the outline planning consent should be dedicated as public (not permissive) rights of way.

A timescale for the dedication of the paths should be included which will ensure rural access from West Dorchester and the Poundbury Development in the very near future and the paths should take account of the needs of cyclists, walkers and the disabled in compliance with the local development plan.

Dr Farrant was shown the farmtracks which could be dedicated as public rights of way to Maiden Castle and which up to about 20 years ago were accessible by the public. She agreed that there did not appear to be any good reason why these tracks should not once again be available for public access from Poundbury, thereby relieving pedestrian pressure on Maiden Castle Road and bypassing the existing dangerous footpath crossing of the A35.

Dr Farrant commented that, “Walking is a great form of exercise and most of us need to do more of it! South Dorset Ramblers are suggesting a way to make it easy and pleasant for people to walk between Poundbury and Maiden Castle without threatening livestock or crops. It seems to me that what they are suggesting is a very good solution, balancing the interests of Poundbury residents and the Duchy. I hope that the District Council will listen to them and will make sure that their own development brief is followed.”