News

5 Mar 2012
Quiz Night at Parley Sports Club

Friday, 20th April 2012 at 7pm for a prompt 7.30 pm start. £5 per person, up to 6 in a team. Are you the general knowledge champions of West Parley??
contact Sharon Connell 07809 641352 email parleysportsfc@hotmail.co.uk or
Simon Jordan 07976 561408 email simon@oates-construction.co.uk

1 Mar 2012
Canford Bottom Road works - closures from 2 Feb to 23 March

West Parley's County and District Councillor John Wilson is reported in the Echo as saying that objections have died down. He said "Nobody seems to be bringing much in the way of objections, and I've heard surprisingly little from people complaining about the enclosures."

17 Feb 2012
Safe And Independent Living roadshow visits West Parley

There is an initiative from Bournemouth & Poole NHS in connection with Age UK to help people remain warm, healthy and safe in their own homes.

Vulnerable residents will soon have the opportunity to access a range of local services to help them remain safe and independent in their own homes. Safe and Independent Living (SAIL) assessments are being undertaken through a road show travelling throughout the area during February and March:
Tesco Car Park at Parley Cross for the morning of Tuesday 21st February 2012
Tesco Car Park at Glenmoor Road on Thursday 8th March 2012

More information on Safe And Independent Living roadshow

12 Feb 2012
Surviving winter - emergency funding available

Advice, help and useful contact details from the Dorset Community Foundation

8 Feb 2012
India Day extravaganza at Parley First School

India Day at Parley First School
looks tasty!

8th Feb 2012
On Tuesday afternoon, 7th February 2012, the pupils of Year 4 at West Parley First School organised an India Day to which their parents were invited and they also invited the Mayor of Ferndown and Councillor Geoff Dark to represent West Parley Parish Council. The children themselves were responsible for the programme of events which included a taste of Indian food served to the visitors, some Indian dancing and a fashion show of some of the lovely costumes worn by the children.

India Day at Parley First School
concentration required!

There was also a replica of a small Indian hut they had built in the playing field, a DVD about India produced by the children and displays of lots of work and projects that they had carried out in preparation for the India Day. There was also an Indian song very well performed by the children. The afternoon was extremely successful and congratulations are due to all the children of Year 4 for a very entertaining afternoon.

8 Feb 2012
Local MP Chris Chope against District Council plans for building in green belt

Chris Chope, our local MP, wrote the following to West Parley Parish Councillor Kenny Pearce:

Dear Mr Pearce,
Thank you for your email of 1st February about the meeting scheduled for later that same day.

I am happy to reconfirm my commitment to campaigning against building on the Green Belt in the Christchurch constituency. I am well aware that the threat to the Green Belt in and around West Parley remains and that the District Council is engaged in a pre-consultation process which will result in a formal public consultation later this year.

I have made it clear to the Leader of the Council, with whom I discussed this matter last week, that I remain of the opinion that development on the Green Belt in West Parley is an unacceptable proposal and one which I will oppose strongly.

With best wishes,
Chris Chope

5 Feb 2012
Green Belt Housing Plans - public speaking at Barrington Center

Standing Room only at Barrington Center, Ferndown 1st Feb as public air their views to the District Council.

public meeting at the Barrington Center
packed out at the Barrington Center

The District Council's Policy & Resources committee met in front of over 300 members of the public. The purpose of the meeting was to hear public views on the recently released Core Strategy document, which contains the Council's plans for building large numbers of houses in the green belt at Corfe Mullen, Wimborne, Verwood and West Parley.

The plans for West Parley are disappointingly more than those put forward in the Council's 2010 "Options". The 220 houses planned for the Dudsbury Heights field and the 300 for the New Road field represent an unsustainable 32% addition to West Parley's present housing stock. Details can be found on the Parish Council, Residents Association and Dorset for You websites - also on the Community Notice Board at Parley Cross, at the local library and at the Council Offices at Furzehill.

public meeting at the Barrington Center
300+ listening to speeches

The Council allowed 20 pre selected speakers for 3 minutes each, 10 of whom were from the communities affected and the others from various interests including environmental, sports, allotments, developers and landowners. The standing room only crowd left the EDDC committee in no doubt as to their feelings on the subject. Among the speakers were two West Parley Parish Councillors, please read the very revealing remarks of Richard Heaslip and the remarks of Kenny Pearce.

And please see more details on the proposed developements.

26 Jan 2012
Church Lane footpath - West Parley Volunteers replace old stile

West Parley volunteers
John Cullen, Alan Macdonald
and Terry Scott
get down to business

The old stile at the New Road entrance to the Church Lane footpath had been there since time immemorial - not really a stile, but two iron bars giving the user an awkward choice of climbing over or squeezing through. Not too friendly for senior citizens.

our brand new stile
our brand new stile

On Thursday this week the West Parley Volunteers replaced it with a proper swinging gate, paid for and authorised by the Parish Council. Fancy getting involved? Contact details and what our volunteers get up to!

20 Jan 2012
District Council publishes its new green belt housing proposals

520 houses to be built in West Parley on the Dudsbury Heights and New Road fields. In the District Council's Core Strategy proposals published on 17 January, the New Road field is to have about 320 houses, together with shops, a 3000 sq metre supermarket, and some recreational land. See diagram A.

new EDDC plan

The Dudsbury Heights fields, behind Ridgeway, are to have about 200 houses. See diagram B

Road layouts are to be extensively altered. Traffic at Parley Cross is to be somewhat reduced by prohibiting 3 present turn lanes - see diagram C. Traffic to and from the new estates will use new link roads, shown in diagrams A and B.

new EDDC plan

These are big changes to the plans proposed by the District Council as "options" in September 2010. Despite their quite detailed nature, they have been developed behind closed doors - neither the West Parley District Councillors or the Parish Council have been involved or asked for their views.

Other green belt building plans are 335 houses at Verwood (reduced from 415); 250 houses at Corfe Mullen (reduced from 310); 1300 houses at Wimborne (increased from 955). The proposed green belt housing at West Parley has been increased from 320 in the Sept 2010 options to 520 - an increase of 62%. This represents a huge (and in the Parish Council's view unsustainable) 32% increase over West Parley's present housing stock of 1630.

new EDDC plan

In the options proposed by the District Council in Sept 2010 the large housing option for the New Road field - then labelled FWP 5 - was labelled a "non preferred option" by the District Council on the grounds of their concerns over such a large extra population being so close to the Parley Common protected heathlands. We are not aware of why the District Council has changed their minds on this and has now reinstated this plan.

The views of West Parley residents on new housing are well documented in the 2011 Parish Plan. Backed by authoritative Surveys completed by 1000 residents the Parish Plan states that over 80% of the residents want to protect the Green Belt, which is a key gap between our community and Bournemouth. Over 80% of residents also accepted that West Parley should take its share of new housing; that a sustainable figure would be the addition of about 100 to our present housing stock of 1630; and that new houses would best be built in the infills on both sides of Christchurch Road.

The District Council will be voting on these new plans, to be issued for consultation as part of their developing Core Strategy, at 6pm on 5 March at a meeting in the Village Hotel, Bournemouth. The public may attend the meeting but may not speak.

The West Parley Parish Council and Residents Association will do its utmost to assist residents in accessing and completing the consultation forms that are to be available in March.

For more detailed information, see the West Parley content of EDDC's larger Core Strategy document - section 10, page 38 of this 46 page document

If you want to write to all or any of the District Councillors before they vote on th 5th March, please find the Councillorss addresses here