Beaminster Cllr Caroline Payne and Sue Farrant call for more affordable housing in rural areas

A roof over one’s head is a basic need. Sadly, all too many people in West Dorset simply can’t take it for granted.

Fact: In the year to March 2008, 61 households were accepted by West Dorset District Council as being homeless and in priority need. Another 61 homeless households were put onto the housing list but for one reason or another are not priority cases and are unlikely to be housed by the Council.

Fact: Across the six Dorset District Councils, 140 households were judged to be homeless and in priority need in the year ending 31 March 2008.

Fact: At the end of March this year, a total of 125 Dorset households were living in temporary accommodation (including bed and breakfast).

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Up to half of all our rural post offices are facing closure as the Government cuts its £150 million a year grant and closes the Post Office Card Account.

“Our post offices provide a vital lifeline in many villages where they are the only shop or local service,” says campaigner David Burden. “The poor and elderly who don’t have access to a car will be badly hit by these closures and village life will suffer.”

“The last Conservative Government closed 3,500 local post offices and this Government has already closed 4,000. Now they want to close at least another 2,500!” added campaigner Robert Armstrong. “We urgently need a change of attitude.”

The Lib Dems want to protect the post office network with a 5 point plan that includes a £2 billion investment fund, new services and retention of the Post Office Card Account and grants.

Cllr Caroline Payne and Gil Streets

Beaminster Cllr Caroline Payne and Gil Streets are working together to keep our countryside safe and quiet from the threat posed by a new law to make Byways Open to All Traffic (B.O.A.T.S.)

“We don’t want to hear 4×4’s and quad bikes roaring up tiny paths disturbing local residents and wildlife and damaging ancient rights of way,” said Caroline.

Mark Oaten MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary joined Justine McGuinness, Lib Dem Parliamentary spokesperson for West Dorset, today in calling for more Police Officers for rural West Dorset. Speaking after meeting local police officers and “walking the beat” in Dorchester, Mark Oaten said:

“With the current security climate and problems with drinking in our towns and city centres, there are heavy demands on the police. However, that does not mean we can ignore policing in rural areas. The Liberal Democrats believe that extra provisions should be made available to rural forces, and would introduce an extra 700 policemen to the region.”

Justine McGuinness commented:

“I know the police officers locally work very hard, but I have heard so many horror stories about the long waits faced by local people who call the police. Clearly our police need more resources. Only the Liberal Democrats have set out plans for a minimum policing guarantee as part of an overall ‘Policing Contract’ between local police authorities and the communities they serve. It could stop the trend to cut back on police in rural areas and would be better for us here in West Dorset.”

In the last six months of 2004 there were about 8,000 crimes reported in West Dorset. Many of them will never be solved - across the country only one in four crimes is cleared up.

Ms McGuinness added:

“Current crime levels are far too high. It is all very well politicians in London having a shouting match over who is toughest on criminals, but that is not going to solve the epidemic levels of crime and detect crimes. We urgently need many more police visible in our communities here in West Dorset. It is highly visible policing that deters and catches criminals.”

The Dorchester section of Dorset’s Western Division has three Sergeants, 27 Constables, six Special Constables and two Police Community Support Officers to provide 24 hour policing cover for a mainly rural area in excess of 200 square miles.

The section is split four ways with officers designated as Community Beat Officers with a responsibility within each of the beat areas.

West Dorset Liberal Democrats today slammed supermarkets’ profits as “excessive” and called for a better deal for local farmers.

Supermarket profits have risen by 300% during the last 15 years. In the same period, their directors have reaped an astonishing 557% increase in pay, whilst farmers’ incomes have risen less than a third - a paltry 29%.

These figures published today by the Liberal Democrats show the Code of Practice, which governs the relations between the major supermarkets and farmers, to be totally inadequate.

Andrew George MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Food and Rural Affairs Secretary will meet with the DTI Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe MP, in October to discuss the need for a strengthened Code of Practice and a greater role for the OFT.

Local Liberal Democrat Justine McGuinness plans to meet her Party’s Parliamentary Spokesperson, Andrew George MP, before he sees the Government Minister.

Ms McGuinness will tell him West Dorset’s farmers deserve a fairer deal.

Commenting on the research, Justine said:

“Supermarkets are now so powerful they can dictate market conditions for British farmers. Their profits are excessive. West Dorset’s dairy farmers in particular are not getting a fair deal. Their hard work is not reflected in the price farmers get for milk. They struggle to make any income, while the supermarkets make huge profits.”

Andrew George MP said:

“While the supermarkets’ fifty five top executives are creaming it, many dairy farmers are struggling to make any income at all. I am all in favour of rewarding success, but this is simply rewarding those who have all the cards stacked up on their side of the supply chain.

“It is clear the Government can no longer sit on its hands whilst the supermarkets squeeze the lifeblood from our countryside. Food supply chain relationships need rebalancing, the Supermarket Code must be strengthened and the OFT must get tough with the bully-boy tactics of the big boys.”

Local campaigner, Justine McGuinness has found out that at least 33 public phone boxes across West Dorset are in danger of being axed by BT. Local residents have only got 10 days left to voice any concerns about losing their village pay phone. BT Payphones are currently consulting on the closure of phone boxes in villages such as Nettlecombe, near Bridport.

BT will not guarantee that the boxes at the neighbouring villages of Powerstock and West Milton will not be axed as well. Liberal Democrat County Councillor, Gil Streets and West Dorset campaigner, Justine McGuinness, are very concerned about the potential loss of these vital rural services.

Justine McGuinness commented: “Following the loss of the Post Office and shop in Nettlecombe, the loss of phone-boxes would be a disaster. This is the one service the village still has. People with mobile phones probably think they do not need a pay phone, but I have tried several different mobiles in the Nettlecombe area - none of them get a signal. I think BT should at least guarantee that one of the three villages retains a phone box.”

Cllr Gil Streets added “I know that most mobile phones do not get a signal in Nettlecombe. So public phone-boxes are important for residents and for the many visitors who come to enjoy the beautiful countryside around Powerstock.”

Justine McGuinness commented: “Local residents and people concerned about the closure of any of the phone boxes on the ‘condemned’ list have only got until 25 May to voice their concerns to BT.”

Anyone concerned about the closure of phone boxes should write to BT Pay Phones saying why you think that the public phone box should not be removed. Write to BT Payphones, PP 06A21, Delta Point, Wellesley Road, CROYDON CR9 2YZ, quoting the number of the phone box, or email: btp.authorisation.team@bt.com, by 25 May. The number for the Nettlecombe phone box is 01308 485 258.

As the Summer term starts local Liberal Democrat campaigner, Justine McGuinness, warned that free school buses for children in rural West Dorset were under threat by Government plans to abolish free school buses. The Government plans to remove free travel for children who travel more than three miles to school (two miles for those under eight). Ms McGuinness is asking people to sign her petition.

“This Government seems determined to hit all things rural. Many of our children in West Dorset simply can not get to school without the bus. They are going to be the hardest hit. Local salaries are some of the lowest in the country. I know families who find it hard enough to make ends meet without the worry of having to pay for their children to get to school. I am asking people to sign my petition to say no to the ending of free school buses.”

The Government’s own pilot study suggests that where services are being introduced to shift school run traffic from cars to buses parents appeared unwilling to pay more than £1 a day, a sum that does not cover the full cost of the service.

Research by the Liberal Democrats shows that school run traffic could increase by 18 per cent under new Government proposals to end the automatic entitlement to free school transport, the opposite of what is actually intended by the draft School Transport Bill.

Justine McGuinness commented: “It is environmental madness to be encouraging even more cars on the school run - making our roads more congested and adding to climate changing Carbon Dioxide emissions.

“Ending free school transport, taken together with the introduction of Tuition Fees, shows that the Labour Government’s pledge of ‘Education, Education, Education’ is now yet another broken promise. Mr Blair has shown that he does not know or care about people who live in rural Britain.”

The Government’s draft School Transport Bill would allow Local Education Authorities to charge all but a minority of children for their bus travel. Research by the Liberal Democrats shows that 600,000 school children could lose their right to free school transport if Government proposals were rolled out across the whole of England.