December 2019 West Parley Parish Council's Annual Volunteer Celebration Evening 2019
The Parish Council's annual reception took place towards the end of 2019, where the West Parley Residents' Association (WPRA) Volunteers are thanked for their contributions in keeping West Parley at its best. The evening is quite informal seeing guests enjoy a light buffet funded by the Parish Council, along with beverages donated by local stores. It also gave an opportunity for the village's NeighbourCar scheme’s co-ordinator, Clive Butcher, to make a plea for any additional volunteer drivers who could give up the odd hour each week to drive residents in need, so they can attend medical
appointments. The Chairman of West Parley Parish Council, Cllr Philip Bamborough presented awards to all the recipients.
The Volunteers of the Year for 2019 were Andy Steele and Diana Penwill who work discreetly but tirelessly in West Parley. Their activities include weekly / twice weekly litter picking the recreation ground, Parley Wood, Council's car park and Sports fields, as well as emptying the bins which involves regular visits to the local recycling centre. Together they have undertaken countless emergency repairs to the play area, bridges in the woods and fallen trees. They have assisted with marshalling parking on the recreation ground for local events and are also volunteers for distribution of the Council's twice yearly all house newsletter. This year however, their efforts surpassed the previous 10 years contributions, when the lease & licence ended on the Sports Club building and it reverted back to the Parish Council. The Club has now been renamed as the West Parley Community Sports and Social Club, and as ex-members they are passionate about getting the clubhouse back to being an accessible hub for the community. They spent every single day in the summer at the premises, undertaking minor repairs, doing A LOT of cleaning, clearing out the ditches and removing waste left by
the outgoing tenants.
. In addition, every Wednesday Diana meets the Health Walkers group, to enable them to complete their necessary paperwork for the group to continue. To enable sports to continue during this transitionary period, Diana would open the premises to give access to the toilets and close up at the end of the playing day. Diana also co-ordinates the village's team of litters pickers, who you will notice collecting litter from all the main roads, wearing their luminous tabards Diana is dual-hatted as she is also a member of the Parish Council so a large remainder of her time is spent on Council activities, including meeting trades at the Council's premises, working on sub groups, covering emails in the Clerk's absence, providing admin support for the facebook page as well as the usual Council activities of attending meetings.
Two runners up prizes were awarded to John & Anne Smith and Robin & Sheila Gooden. They were largely responsible for co-ordinating their team of helpers, planting and tending the numerous beautiful floral displays around the village, which the Parish Council funds. Again, adorned in their luminous WPRA volunteer tabards, they would water the planters from 6.30am when many are still ticked up in bed. A long service community award was presented to Mr Gary Peskett for his dedication and involvement with the West Parley Memorial Committee for over 35 years. The hall is well used by
many groups and organisations, and operates because of people like Gary who give up their time to help provide facilities for residents. The last presentation of the night was to John Dinsdale who co-ordinated the evening.
If you are interested in volunteering to making a difference in the village please do get in touch:
- to join the Parish Council - contact the Parish Clerk on enquiries@westparley-pc.gov.uk
- to join the West Parley Residents Association - contact John Dinsdale 01202 872974 or Richard Heaslip 01202 594982.
- NeighbourCar - 07592 860 104
18 December 2019 An Open Letter To Dorset Residents from Pcc Martyn Underhill
Dear Dorset Constituent,
I am today announcing that I have taken the difficult decision not to stand for re-election in May 2020 for a third term as Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Dorset. Why am I standing down? Well, after 40 years of public service, I now feel that a change of direction is called for in my life. After two terms as the PCC for Dorset I am moving on to pastures new. I am keen to identify new challenges and new opportunities at a local and national level, and to build on my local charity work, and my role as a Lay Canon for the Salisbury Diocese.
There is no doubt about it. My seven years working with Dorset Police has been eventful. I feel I can leave with my head held high. I was the first ever PCC for Dorset, and I took up the role at a critical time for policing. I am proud I kept my independence and was able to work across political parties for the good of the people of Dorset.
Sadly, I also took over the reins at the start of austerity and I oversaw the Force into sustained cuts. I am pleased to now be leading them back out again with the Chief Constable, James Vaughan.
In 2012, the Force’s youngest police officer was 25 years old, as the Force had not recruited since 2008. Austerity was bedding in. PCSO numbers were under threat, as were police officer numbers. The Marine Section was being disbanded. The Victims Bureau, Cadet Scheme, Rural Crime and Drone Teams were all still in the ether, as was the Strategic Alliance (with Devon & Cornwall Police), Cyber Dogs and Community Speed Watch. Mental Health dominated the policing landscape.
Seven years later, with reduced numbers, increased workload, and the Force well on its way to achieving ‘outstanding’ in policing vulnerability, the Force has achieved 10 out of 10 ‘good’ ratings from the HMICFRS Inspectorate. As austerity comes to an end, mental health demand is still there but has changed in nature.
None of us know what the new Government has in store for policing, but I do know I leave Dorset Police as a good organisation that punches above its weight. Having said that, I have six months of office remaining, and there is much more to do. I will continue to focus on the job at hand and will be publishing a review of my second term around April next year. Please look out for it, and in the meanwhile I thank my team for all that they do and you not only for your support over the past seven years, but also for your continued support of Dorset Police.
Kind regards
Martyn Underhill
Police and Crime Commissioner
16 December 2019 Food Bank Donations - Thank You
Thank you to those of you who have contributed to the food collection boxes at the 2 local Tesco stores (Parley Cross and Glenmoor Road). They have received a record amount of food and toiletries which is given to the Kinson Foodbank, St Andrews Church, on behalf of the Trussell Trust. The products will be distributed to those who are in genuine need.
It’s great to see that the season of goodwill to others is alive and well in our wonderful village.
2 December 2019 Ferndown Neighbourhood Watch newsletter out now
25 November 2019 Dorset Waste Partnership – Collections over the festive period
Please note the amended collection dates to ensure your waste doesn’t accumulate over Christmas and New Year.
As always, try to recycle as much as possible. Waste collections over the festive period
8 November 2019 Last Chance To Have Your Say on Action Fraud
This week is the last chance for Dorset residents to respond to a survey on the Action Fraud system. The survey - https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5ZTM6RL - closes this week. It is an opportunity for any Dorset residents who have used the national fraud reporting service to give their views to Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill, who will be lobbying the next government for improvements to the service.
Read Martyn Underhill's comments below on why he is carrying out this survey.
"I was extremely concerned to read reports in the media about Action Fraud.
Action Fraud is the UK's national fraud reporting service, overseen by the City of London Police, and victims of fraud across the country are told to log their cases with this service.
An undercover investigation by The Times recently found evidence that call handlers working for the organisation were trained to mislead victims of fraud into thinking their cases would be investigated when they knew most would never be looked at again.
Worse, some managers were reported to have privately mocked people who lost money to fraudsters, calling them ‘morons’ and ‘screwballs’.
This was incredibly distressing, both to me, and to the many dedicated officers and staff in Dorset Police who work hard to combat this ever-growing problem.
However, it is far from the first complaint I’ve heard about them. As the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) former lead for fraud, I listened to many heartbreaking stories from people who had lost tens of thousands of pounds – their life savings – only to feel ignored by Action Fraud, while officers working in this area expressed their own frustrations.
Clearly, there’s something going badly wrong in the running of this organisation, and to my mind there has been for a long time.
Now, I plan to do something about it by lobbying the next government for urgent improvements – and I want your help in doing this by responding to my survey, here - https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5ZTM6RL
I want to find out about Dorset residents’ experiences of Action Fraud, whether they were satisfied with the outcome and the service they received, and if not I want them to tell me what went wrong and what could have been done better.
This will give me a dossier of evidence I can take to ministers calling for improvements, rather than relying on anecdotal accounts.
It’s vitally important we get this right. Nationally, fraud is a problem of epidemic proportions, accounting for more than a third of all crime across England and Wales last year.
The service itself is overseen by the City Of London Police, but most of the call handling is outsourced to a private company called Concentrix.
They conducted their own investigation following The Times’ report, and some staff members were suspended, but serious questions need to be asked about them – including whether an American company should even have been involved in this work at all.
Ultimately, like many aspects of policing, it comes down to funding. With fraud being such a huge and rapidly growing area, should the Home Office be putting more resources into the national response and keeping a closer eye on how it’s managed?
These are all questions that need looking at, but first I need your help in responding to my survey.
Remember, this isn’t about complaining to Dorset Police or getting your case investigated – I can’t do either of those things in this space. What I can do is listen and take this to the government so I can tell ministers: “This is how many members of the public in Dorset feel let down by Action Fraud, what are you going to do about it?”
I need to know what experiences you’ve had, both good and bad, so I can lobby the government and try to make this better for everyone.
Again, please access the survey here - https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5ZTM6RL
Martyn Underhill
Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset
24 October 2019 Resident Consultation - Results
Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the consultation and return it to us. Attached is a summary of the results. There is a lot of information but this gives the Parish Council a good indication of how you want us to progress things on your behalf. For all the information please click here.
3 October 2019 Temporary Traffic Regulation Order for Church Lane, West Parley
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