Susan Jefferies

Several people have complained about the state of the road surface on the Higher Blandford Road going down to St Hubert’s Church and the A31. It was resurfaced less than a year ago, and in the torrential rains at the beginning of the year much of the surface washed down the hill to come to rest close to the A31.

Sadly this is not a problem unique to Corfe Mullen, all over the County residents are complaining about new road surfaces breaking down. I am afraid that the short answer is that Dorset Works bought a duff load……….

On Wednesday the new Sure Start Centre had an initial meeting and Open Morning so we all learnt a bit more about it.  Lots of activities planned for young families, young children, young mothers and so on.  Initially the Library is to be used as mainly an outreach centre for the staff who will go out to the young families.

Once the Library hours are reduced in September there will be sessions with families and children in the library premises.

Some of you may have noticed that the County Council have replaced the pavement along the Wareham Road from the Hillside Post Office to Waterloo Road.  Residents who walk along there are delighted.

I did ask if they had any money/time to repair any other pavements in Corfe Mullen but I am afraid, no, not for the moment,

Corfe Mullen Library is open again after alterations.  The reduction of hours is not planned to take place until September.  I believe that the Sure Start programme will be using the Library quite soon, but we have not been told in what capacity and how the two will manage alongside each other.

The results of our Library survey are being considered now, we had input and comments from nearly 40% of people who hold Library cards.

The Library Service is determined to go ahead with installing RFI (Radio Frequency Identification) at a cost of £1.3m.  I personally, am offended that the new Book Fund has been halved 2 years running, yet £1.3m is available to install metal tags in all our books.

At the end of last year the Tories at DCC announced they would need to close 6 Day Centres, to save money. The users of these Day Centres would be bussed to the next nearest Day Centre, in some cases nearly two hours in a bus.  Swanage users were to be bussed to Wareham, and everyone knows how long that journey can take in the summer months !  Attendances had dropped because the criterion for eligibility had been raised and people, even existing users, were being turned away as ‘not sufficiently in need’.

The users, and particularly their carers, mounted a very vigorous campaign pointing out how vital a local Day Centre is to a community, (we could do with one in Corfe Mullen !).  In the event the County Council’s settlement from the Government was increased by £4m so we managed to argue that 5 of these Day Centres be saved, for the moment.

The Day Centre in Blandford, which is for learning disabled adults, tragically we failed to save.  DCC want to redirect many of the users to other Day Centres and make plans for the remaining ones.  The people who use this centre are vulnerable, very anxious about change, and need consistency in their lives, their routines and their friendships. Plans for them should never be made hurriedly.  However we LibDems failed even to achieve a few months extension to this plan. DCC do not have plans in place for everyone, they intend to have plans in place by May when the centre will close to users and become an administrative centre.  We argued strongly, along with a vocal group of carers, that the plans need to be made and tested, everyone needs to know that they are catered for and are happy and confident with the plans, before the Centre is closed.

The Tories at DCC want to close the Therapy Pool at Sturminster Newton to save money. This pool is a valuable resource used by people with mobility problems and at least two Special Schools. Vigorous protest has enabled us to broker a deal whereby if the Community can run it, at no cost to the County Council, then it can remain open. However there is a very tight deadline, May 2008. It will take longer than that to put in place a Business Plan, proper funding, perhaps apply for Lottery funding and so on. We LibDems could not gain an extension on this deadline.

The Fire Authority received a paltry settlement from central Government this year, following years of underfunding, so some cuts will have to be made.

One thing that concerns us particularly is that we must make plans and provision for the Olympic Games in 2012 when we have all the Sailing events in Weymouth which will include a lot of extra visitors and a lot of extra boats.  So far we have been given not a penny towards this and preparations and training should begin this year.

I am sorry, we have been without an internet connection at home for a month ! Very trying, back online this weekend, thank goodness.

Now I must try to remember all that has happened in this last month. At Dorset County Council much of the time has been spent on Budgets for the coming year.