Susan Jefferies

Last week we had our quarterly meeting of the Beacon Hill Tip Liaison committee preceded as usual by a site visit.

If you go up onto the Tip, as we do, and see all the household waste from a community it is a horrifying sight. I defy anyone to see that and not return a dedicated recycler ! the less we can throw into holes in the ground the better and the longer we will retain our surroundings.

Saying that, it is interesting, it is a very technical business. Methane gas is produced by the rotting rubbish and collected, piped out and used to make electricity which is sold to the National grid. The methane plant produces 2megawatts of electricity, enough to light half the homes in Corfe Mullen.

The leachate, the liquid drawn off from the base of the rubbish, more in wet weather as the rain permeates the heap, is broken down and neutralised on the site, until the inert liquid is innocuous enough to be allowed into the sewage system.

The Tip attracts seagulls, the vermin of the skies, but they are kept at bay most effectively by trained birds of prey who are flown most days. A magnificent site to see.

The old brickworks building has been renovated and turned into a headquarters and training centre for Dorset Wild Life Trust.

Much as we didn’t want the Tip 15 years ago, it is not all bad !

The QE saga rumbles on, or does not, depends how you look at it.

We hoped to have resolution on July 9th but I don’t think work has restarted, still a quiet site. We hoped that the contractors could make great progress in the 6 weeks of the summer holidays, no students, good weather.

All that we do know is that the project is now hopelessly over budget, before even a brick has been laid. Increased by nearly a third since May ? and it was well over by then already. I cannot believe that it will stop there, I doubt we will see much change from £50m by the time students actually move in.

Did the Tories not have a legal contract ? a binding price ? Have they learned nothing from the fiasco of Lytchett Minster School ? At the moment they are trying to keep the whole thing under wraps, ‘Confidential business’ they say. On Thursday, at the Council Meeting, we LibDems will attempt to get the whole story aired in public, the tax payers need to know.

The project will go ahead, but other capital projects in the pipeline will suffer.

 Both the Post Offices in Corfe Mullen are to stay ! Neither has been named in the first round of closures. However the consultation is not complete until September and so we must continue to support them and do as much business as we can locally.

The competition has now closed to entries so we must await voting and a result.  In view of this I have taken all the comments off the website, and we must wait and see what the public decide !

At least two local people are heading for Beijing, and I am sure there are more I do not know about.

Wendy is there already with the Torch bearers. Wendy and her assistance dog Caesar were chosen to be one of the special people to carry the torch through London, although that performance became more controversial than anyone had anticipated. Wendy was invited to Beijing to watch the end of the journey there. She decided not to take Caesar with her to China, they eat dogs in China ! So Caesar is safely in Dorset and Wendy is apart from him for the first time in 7 years.

Julia is off at the end of the week to join the Sailing team. She will be crewing in a pace boat, helping to tune the team boats and as a reserve for the team. At the moment the biggest challenges seem to be monster seaweed and pollution so bad that they cannot see where they are going !

They are both having an experience of a lifetime and will have a lot to tell us on their return !!

Are the Tories about to make a U turn ? Again ?

A couple of weeks ago Cllr Nick King (Tory) convened a meeting at Bournemouth Council Offices, using Bournemouth Council Officers, on the RSS in Bournemouth, Poole and SE Dorset. The invitation list read like the invitation list to a Tory cocktail party. Both Corfe Mullen and Lytchett are under threat of a great deal of additional building under this project and we have been working hard for 18 months in protest, however neither Fred Drane nor myself, both County Councillors, were invited to this meeting, each of our areas was represented by a Tory, one a town Councillor and the other a Parish Councillor.

At this meeting all sorts of protest actions were discussed and agreed and Nick King seems to be hailing himself the lead protester for the RSS.

May we remind the Tories that when the response to the original RSS was debated in March 2006, the Tory administration at Dorset County Council, the Tory administration in Poole, the Tory administration in Bournemouth and the Tory administration in East Dorset ALL supported the proposals for urban extensions into the Green Belt. The LibDems were the lone voices in protest. Subsequently the Tories on East Dorset reversed their stand, fearing a massive loss of seats at the local elections, however all the Tory Councillors who were also County Councillors who made a U turn continued to support the response at County level.

Sheer hypocrisy !!

I am delighted if the Tories, at this late stage, realise the damage these urban extensions will do, I am delighted if they make a U turn, but please do not take the moral high ground and pretend this is all your idea !

We have been fighting this vigorously and to the highest level for over 2 years !!

40 people eschewed the television and arrived at Barrow Hills at 9pm last night. The rain held off, the wind dropped, a bit, and we had a very successful Twilight Walk.

Two Night jars flew and played above us, clearly visible against the fading sky, and we all heard their churring and calling, as we learned more about how they arrive from Africa in May to lay their eggs in nests on the ground, and stay until September when they all return to warmer climates. They have visited Dorset and Hampshire since the 10th Century, some travel further up the country but not in great numbers.

We also saw a bat, then on the way back, as it got darker there were 5 glow worms hidden in the grass beside the path to light us home.

Thank you very much to Jane for organising it and Nicky from Dorset Wildlife Trust for leading us all.

All these creatures need undeveloped and uncultivated land to survive, to live, breed and find their food. We still have patches of this land in Corfe Mullen and we must keep it, if we build on it, it will be lost and it’s wildlife with it. We must fight to keep them safe, which is why we are upset about being asked to accommodate 700 more homes on our Green Belt land. I know we cannot stand still and I know we need more Affordable Homes in Corfe Mullen as our young people cannot afford to stay, but as Jane said ‘I am not against the houses, but we must not build them on land which is precious’.

Help us to ensure that we protect our precious wild places and the wildlife living there, and find more appropriate areas to build more houses.

Next event planned for August 9th, keep in touch with Corfe Mullen Nature Watch !  Link on the left hand side of this page.

Don’t forget ! 9pm tonight we have our first guided Nature Walk with Corfe Mullen Nature Watch (link on this page), Barrow Hills, just north of Corfe Hills school. We will be looking for glow worms, nightjars and other creatures of the night !

Good News ! Both our Post masters have had letters to say that they are not high on the list for closure. This does not mean that they are completely safe, yet, the consultation still continues, so we must all support them. however it does look as though the Powers that Be have noticed that we need both of them.

We need both our Post Offices !