West Dorset Liberal Democrats

Residents of Dochester have demanded a Town Poll on the District Council’s intention to build new offices. All electors in the town will have a vote and the Poll will be held on Thursday 22 April between 4 pm and  9pm.

Conservative-run West Dorset District Council says it has consulted everyone about plans to build itself new Council offices.

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.

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