An old Dorchester park and Ride sign PROPOSALS for a park and ride for Dorchester should be dropped from future plans for the area – according to town councillors. They say the last loss-making scheme failed to work and was closed down despite being subsidised by the previous district council. Since the pandemic very few office workers, including those employed by the Dorset Council, are coming into the county town to work. Cllr Andy Canning says that council workers are not now expected to return to Dorchester in large numbers with many continuing to work from home, if only for part of their working week. He told a town council planning meeting on Monday evening that when the last scheme was running council staff were the main users of it, but even then only in small numbers.
DORCHESTER town councillors say they will continue to press for a better site for the town’s household recycling centre. The tip, at Louds Mill, is at the end of a pot-holed road which often floods in winter and is difficult for many people to use without assistance. The site frequently has to be completely closed for lorries to remove the skip containers, resulting in long queues in the narrow approach road. During the past two years there have also been problems for residents in Lubbecke Way and adjoining roads by HGVs using part of the route where they should be banned – although Dorset Council has yet to enact the full weight restrictions. It took more than a year to put in parking restrictions to improve traffic flows.
Row over Save The Area North of Dorchester s banner DORSET Council has been accused of doing little to publicise the effects its Local Plan review might have on Dorchester – other than take down a banner which drew attention to it. That move has now led to the town council seeking to take control over which banners are displayed in the county town. Independent councillor Cllr Alistair Chisholm, who is among those opposing plans for 4,000 new homes north of Dorchester, says he finds it ‘a bit rich’ that Dorset Council ordered its staff to take down the banner across South Street, in a gale, and has yet to deliver on its promise of an exhibition in the town to publicise the plan review.
The Dorchester site which families are moving from TRAVELLING families who need to move from Dorchester to a new site on the outskirts of the town have won the backing of the town council to get power to their homes. The site, off Slyers Lane at Cokers Frome, already has other services, including permission for its own sewage works, but according to Dorchester town councillor Alistair Chisholm getting electrical power has proved difficult. He told the town council that the fairground families, who for decades have been based at the old Flax Factory site in St George’s Road, Dorchester, are having to move because their site, based around an old barn, is being re-developed for housing.
Concerns raised about developer contributions in Dorset by Weymouth cllr David Gray (inset) LOCAL people are getting little, or no say, in how funds from developers are spent. The claim comes from Weymouth Radipole councillor Cllr David Gray who says he has been unable to find any evidence of local involvement in decisions about how Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) money is paid out. The CIL funds, and what are known as Section 106 payments, are collected in a ‘pot’ from contributions from developers to improve facilities in the areas where building projects have taken place. The fund is now administered by Dorset Council and was previously looked after by the former district and borough councils.