stouravonmagazine.co.uk
8 New Stour & Avon, June 17, 2022
Letters
Government must honour its pledge
UNDER THREAT?... Rural Dorset
Just a modest increase in investment in our Green Belts would benefit nearly half the population. At CPRE we’re urging Government to honour its pledge to protect and enhance these lands and have published a report asking it to deliver funds to meet its Levelling Up Bill commitment to ‘improve Green Belts around towns and cities’. The report is both timely and important as I understand that Dorset Council is considering relaxing the Green Belt designations on ground of ‘exceptional circumstances’ and a commitment from Government to increase funding for their protection and enhancement would send a powerful message that it’s serious in its aim to develop ‘brownfield first’. The term ‘exceptional circumstances’ is a big
problem locally, being used to justify removal of land from Green Belts for development - often of large houses that don’t address the lack of affordable housing for Dorset residents. Seventy per cent of Green Belt around Wimborne alone has been removed for development. This power has also been used to remove Green Belt protection from the countryside close to many in BCP and East Dorset, particularly in the Stour Valley. The report analyses of the geographical spread of agri-environment schemes and considers the financial implications of the Environmental Land Management schemes - soon to be introduced. These schemes will replace agricultural and land management subsidies and
children with the amazing Bierfass Oompah Band providing the music when Gussage All Saints, nine miles from Blandford, holds its annual fete with a host of stalls on Saturday, June 25, in the picturesque grounds of Gussage House from 2pm. Gussage All Saints. All fete proceeds go to supporting the village hall and local church. Sorry, no dogs allowed.
Re: Government failures dominate complaints (NS&A, May 20). Mr Chope MP bemoans the decline in the delivery of public services but conveniently ignores the fact that the years and years of unnecessary austerity since this Conservative government came to office in 2010 has led to considerable reduction in staffing and resources allocated to public services. With the many experienced staff discarded and budgets reduced, service standards were bound to decline and they will only improve if staff and services are properly resourced.
Cartoon by Lyndon Wall justsocaricatures.co.uk
will be how Government funds its commitment to safeguard and improve Green Belt land. It is vital that these schemes recognise the benefits to be achieved by that investment, not least for urban dwellers. Dorset residents, please write to your MPs, ward councillors,
parish councillors, drawing attention to this threat to the Green Belts, urging them to pressurise the Government. Please visit cpre.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2022/05/ CPRE_Countryside_Next_ Door.pdf. Peter Bowyer Chairman, Dorset CPRE
Frost-free fete Bemoaning issues caused by his own party The Ice Queen will wow the
At the outset of the Covid pandemic, both national and local government struggled to respond promptly, clearly showing the impact of inadequate funding in the public sector since 2010. My guess is that of the 100,000 increase in the number of civil servants claimed by Mr Chope, a large percentage of those would have been employed trying to implement failed policies that his government have tried to implement - Brexit being an obvious example. Rob Staite Christchurch
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