Letters

Letters It was unkind to call officers jobsworths

Our front page story last week raised a few hackles, due to the word we used to describe Dorset Council planning officers. We are happy to apologise to them for the term, and to anyone else this word may have offended. We do realise the officers concerned are working within constraints set by the government, and we regret using this term to describe them. Ed

Firstly let me say how glad I am that the Blackmore Vale is back. My thanks and congratulations. However I must comment on your use of the word ‘jobsworth’ in your most recent edition to describe someone who is only performing their statutory role. Are the police jobsworths for enforcing traffic regulation or local authorities jobsworths for pursuing fly tippers? Your use of the term was ill judged. Trevor Hodder

n I take very great issue with your headline on the front page of this week’s Blackmore Vale. You have no right to call public servants “jobsworths” simply for doing their job. I do not work in this sector and know no one who does, and yet my disbelief at your headline is incredulous, and Trumpian in its language. There are two sides to every story and yet you will only be remembered for trying to emotionally browbeat those very officials who work to ensure high standards in our council services. Shame on you. Garry Barker

n How insulting can you be, describing council staff as “jobsworths” (your headline) simply for doing the job they are employed to do? Shameful 68 Lyndon Wall is an experienced cartoonist and caricaturist based in Blandford Forum. He can be commissioned to create personalised caricatures. See more of his work and contact him via justsocaricatures.co.uk

reporting. Kerry Pitt-Kerby

n My pleasure at seeing the return of the Blackmore Vale magazine was tempered by your latest cover story “Colonel’s Final Battle Thwarted by Jobsworths”. Colonel Nick Carrell and his family have my utmost sympathy for the terrible plight they find themselves in and my heart goes out to them. However I strongly object to the planning officers being referred to as ‘jobsworths’; they are simply doing their job – protecting our wonderful villages, countryside and built heritage from unregulated development. Did they even know of the circumstances of the family carrying out this renovation before they stopped the work? The fault here lies with the professionals recruited to work on the project – any architect should know that such a project would require Listed Building Consent (even for interior alterations) and possibly planning permission and it would have been incumbent on them to check before commencing work. This is the sort of accusatory inflammatory reporting akin to the tabloids and I expected better of the New Blackmore Vale. If this is the sort of ‘journalism’ that is going to feature you’ve lost yourself a reader. Name & Address withheld

n I have every sympathy for the sad health condition of Col. Nick Carrell but none whatsoever for the housing situation he and his family now find themselves in. Many people would be happy to pay for a property in need of modernisation, particularly one that is Grade 2 Listed given that the initial purchase cost would be relatively low due to the necessity of meeting the conditions imposed on any renovations. To knowingly go ahead with internal alterations without applying for permission is a risk they have undertaken irresponsibly, regardless of the rules and they should NOT be allowed to continue. The Colonel should be ashamed of himself for behaviour unbecoming to an officer and gentleman Vicki Nugent

n What gives Chris Loder, MP, the right to remove a wreath from the Cenotaph (BVM 20/11/20)? According to the article, the wreath was laid by Donald Bell, an exserviceman who completed four tours of Northern Ireland. That Mr Bell used the opportunity both to express his concerns about climate change and to remember those who gave their lives, is surely a matter for him. Chris, of course, has the right to disagree with Mr Bell’s sentiments, beliefs, and actions, but I question his right to judge Mr Bell’s motives, and to remove his wreath. As an ex-serviceman, I have marched in the Remembrance Day parade, and feel privileged to have done so. Chris believes that Mr Bell’s action was a political protest. That’s as maybe, but Chris’s action was equally political. The only difference is that Mr Bell served, and as far as I know, Chris didn’t. Gordon Morris Leigh

n Can I offer my thanks to the magazine for so kindly featuring our article regarding Ferne Animal Sanctuary and The Ferne Estate as they operated prior to 1975? Several people have come forward to generously offer their experiences and reminiscences for our book, for which we are most grateful. Any other such recollections would be welcomed as all contributions are greatly valued and appreciated. Please do not hesitate to contact me on 01308 868612. Adrian Dixon

n I would like to express a huge thank you to the NBV magazine for including an item in a recent edition on Manor Farm Hazelbury Bryan, now on the market, with its family connections for me. In response to it, I was so pleased to have received several emails and one delightful phone call from folk who remembered my relatives – the Bird Gillinghams – from the village, the last of whom died in 1993. The information provided filled in some of the missing pieces of the family jigsaw as well as highlighting special memories of some dearly remembered relatives of mine and, it would seem, of many in and around Hazelbury. Thank you. Brian Langer Overton, Hampshire

n In selecting the Sherborne school hockey team the left hand side candidate was a real dilemma, even though he was picked for West of England trials. Halfway through a training session the little blond 15-year-old boy with big blue eyes would approach me: “Sir, can I leave now, I've got to attend a piano lesson?” “What the hell are you thinking about, tink-tonking away on a bleeding piano?” I said. “You could be playing for the West of England, don’t waste your time messing about with music!” I happened to be addressing a young impressionable lad called Chris Martin, who was to shoot to millionaire pop stardom as the charismatic lead singer of Coldplay, one of the world's most celebrated bands of the 21st century. I couldn't care, good little player was Chris! Maybe, just maybe he named the band after standing around on the left wing on Sherborne’s Upper on many a diabolically freezing cold January afternoon. Gavin Featherstone (lifelong poor hockey coach!) Olympic coach Gavin Featherstone featured in last fortnight’s NBV, having written a book.

n We now have approval, (subject to confirmation) of a second vanity project by the Government (and second only to HS2), of the road tunnel adjacent to Stonehenge. The support of English Heritage and other bodies with a green agenda, to the detriment of logic is not of the real world. The answer to the congestion problem there on the A303, is a second carriageway to the spot of the current road, which would run alongside at the expense of the grass verge and part of the pig farm. This could be completed probably in not much more than a year and at a fraction of the cost, although I am not a civil engineer. It would also avoid at least ten years of further misery, increased congestion and minimal disruption of traffic and the economy, not only locally but to the whole of the SW. Trees could be planted to screen the Stones. By the time any tunnel opens traffic volumes will have multiplied to accentuate the problem. The roundabout, which is a major cause of the current problems, should be overpassed. Of course we only have two routes to the east; the

Thanks to our lovely shop

The little shop at Stourpaine is certainly a big asset to the village (NBV November 20). I would also like to add a huge thank you to the ladies who have worked so hard in the shop and post office during

A303 and the A30. Of course, this will not solve the problem due to the prevalence of single carriageways to the west of the roundabout. Neither will the tunnel. This project is madness. The planners and influencers are clearly not drivers and live in an exclusive bubble. The tunnel project stands more chance of being disrupted by the environmentalists, when the engineers dig up a bone or some such artefact. I have asked our MP Simon Hoare for his view. He has yet to respond. Jeremy Bloomfield, East Stour

n I read the letter from Jeremy Bloomfield in East Stour, with great interest as I could have written the same words myself. I very well recall how we were told that by becoming a unitary county council cost savings lockdown, keeping the shelves filled with goods to suit our needs and delivering our groceries and newspapers. They certainly deserve a mention. NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

would be made – and then being slammed with an astonishingly high council tax rise immediately in order that we could be ‘levelled up’ to the likes of Bournemouth, Poole etc (not that we have anywhere near their levels of services). And yes, now it seems that our car parks are to be charged for seven days a week until 8pm! Again we are being ‘levelled up’ to busy towns and cities. What a total joke. And with the Chancellor's announcement that councils can increase council tax by 5% next year, I have little doubt that Dorset Council will take full advantage of that. Until council tax bands are reassessed and charged correctly, these tax hikes are becoming increasingly unjust. And to cap it all, rural Dorset is now in Tier 2 of lockdown – again we are being levelled up, it seems, to the more heavily infected towns! Anne Johnstone Shaftesbury