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Due to hard ground and the recent high winds it has been difficult to site the Silent Solder on The Ring. For safety he has been removed and will be back on duty at the end of the week.  The Town Council have no planning applications for consultation.
Therefore there will not be a planning meeting on Weds 21.03.18 Closed
Community Library Community Information Office TC Office : Open 8.30-10.30 only Apologies for any inconvenience caused Report to Stalbridge Town Council (Meeting 7th March 2018)
There is little good news to report concerning the potential closure of the Dr Clayton’s Stalbridge Surgery. I have continued to attend the monthly Patient Participation Group’s Chair’s meetings and have been invited to attend a NHS Transport Planning meeting on the 8th March. Stalbridge is on the Agenda and the meeting is at Sturminster. You will all be aware of the Planning Application that Dr Clayton has made in respect of the Surgery premises and to convert the use to Residential. I have been in contact with him, but he has nothing much else that he can add, save that he cannot continue to compromise and extend the Practice life beyond 31st December this year. There has been no miraculous appearance of any Doctor willing to take on the Patient List, irrespective of the Premises ownership aspect. There are one or two local people who would be willing to buy the freehold to rent it back to the Doctor’s Practice, whoever was in that seat. There is no point in this if no Doctor can be found to run a Practice here in Stalbridge. There is also the question of whether the CCG will accept a single Doctor as being able to provide a “sustainable” practice. The present patient numbers justify two doctors. It is still abundantly clear that the Blackmore Vale Partnership (BMVP) have no official interest in taking over this Practice or, it seems, the Patient List. They have been aware of Dr Clayton’s wish to retire for nearly three years as have Milborne Port! Taking on the List would represent a merger of sorts and is simply not on the cards and this has recently been confirmed to Dr Clayton by Dr Simone Yule of the BMVP. This being so, the eventual outcome may have to be a “List Dispersal” to be carried out by the Dorset CCG. When Dr Clayton has formerly given his Notice to Retire or to close the Practice (on the 30th June 2018), the CCG will, at some time, have to send out a letter to all the Patients who remain on his List. I understand that the CCG will not take any steps to “allocate” patients to another Practice and will invite them to find their own Doctors Practice and to re-register themselves with that Practice. I do not know at what time/stage the letter will be sent out, but clearly it will have to give sufficient time for that re-registration to be completed by and for around 4,000 patients. In this event, if a local patient has not re-registered by 31st December 2018 they will find themselves without a Doctor and I am unclear what the CCG’s obligations might be in this event. The CCG will apparently supply a list of Practices that are in the locality and from which patients will be able to choose. It will then be up to the chosen Practice to accept or reject that application. As I understand it, the receiving Practice can apply to the CCG to “close their List” if they feel it is necessary, although they will have to show good reason. This could be that they do not have an adequate number of Doctors and Nurses to meet the need. The Milborne Port Practice is under the Somerset CCG and not Dorset CCG. My main current concern is that neither of the adjacent Practices seem to be taking any steps to be ready to cope with a surge of new patients. Dr Clayton has said that he was lucky enough last year to shore up the Practice by recruiting some clinical staff on 12 month’s contracts. However, one has since left and two more will be going by the end of May 2018. The Patient List as at 1st March 2018 stood at 3,903 patients. VAB 6th March 2018 Dorset residents are being made aware that their bin collections may be affected for up to a week while services return to normal. Due to the recent severe weather, the Dorset Waste Partnership (DWP) suspended collections in East Dorset on Thursday 1 March, with the rest of the county’s collections disrupted on Friday 2 March. With up to two days of missed bin collections to catch-up on, the DWP are kindly asking for residents’ patience while they work to clear the backlog. Bins, boxes and bags should be left out for collection until they are emptied or picked up. Please note that different bins may be emptied at different times. DWP crews will collect any extra bags of rubbish left out with bins that were missed last week. Extra recycling is always accepted provided it is separated and placed in a sturdy container. Residents who weren’t affected by the disruption should continue to put their bins out on their usual collection day. The DWP hopes to have cleared the majority of missed bins by Saturday 10 March, with extra collections to take place if necessary. Updates will be made on https://www.dorsetforyou.gov.uk/travel-dorset/severe-weather/waste-and-recycling and via Facebook and Twitter (@recycle4dorset).
The Dorset Waste Partnership would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding. G Carr-Jones
Local Government Reorganisation: The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, has agreed to the creation of two new unitary councils for Dorset. The two new authorities will replace Dorset’s nine existing councils. One will cover Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and the other will serve the residents of the rest of the county. Each will deliver all local government services in their respective areas. The two new councils are due to go live in April 2019, and, from that date, North Dorset District Council, West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council will cease to exist. Environment: A ban on sky lanterns and helium balloons has been introduced by local councils. The move follows concerns that lanterns and balloons can harm animals and cause damage to property. After listening to concerns, councillors at North Dorset District Council voted to ban the release of balloons and lanterns from council property. The rules will apply to all council-owned land and leased premises. The ban will be reviewed in two years. Access: North Dorset District Council moved to the Nordon Lodge on Thursday 15 February. The building is only a few metres away from the old office, and still on the Nordon site. The Lodge has been re-designed internally to make it more customer friendly and accessible. Customers will be able to access services via touchscreen self-service computers and phones in our reception area, as well as through appointments and surgeries with duty officers. The sale of the rest of the Nordon site is conditional upon the site gaining approval of its outline planning application. Upon approval, the developer will then be required to submit a further, more detailed application for approval. G Carr-Jones
I continue to circulate Monthly updates to the Clerk for all members in the Division on County Council Matters of interest. Budget: Dorset County Council met today 15 February to set the council’s budget and share of council tax for the next financial year. At the meeting of the full council, members agreed to increase council tax by 5.99 per cent to help deal with inflation and bridge the funding gap in adult social care. Council tax for 2018/19 They agreed to raise council tax by 2.99 per cent, plus a further 3 per cent to fund adult social care – which is in line with the Government’s 6 per cent levy (over a total three-year period). The increase in the county council’s share of council tax means a Band D household will pay £79.47 more a year, or £1.53 a week. The 3 per cent social care precept will raise an additional £6.6m this year for the council to invest in adult social care. Health: Dorset County Council and the local NHS are working together to extend the community support available to people within their own areas. In Dorset, we have a high number of older people, people with a disability, isolated and lonely and some who just need support for a short period. There are good support services provided by a number of organisations, including the Partnership for Older People Programme (POPP) which over the last 11 years, has built up a wealth of local knowledge. A county-wide review has been undertaken of non-clinical health coaching (My Health My Way), social prescription and community development and voluntary sector navigation. This has identified that there are some geographical variations across all of these services and people don’t always know how to access them at time of need. A group has been set up to look at best practice elsewhere in England, to find out what works well and what gaps there might be. We want to make sure that support is available in the right time at the right place; make it easier for professionals to identify and refer people; make sure support is regularly available from primary care and encourage the development of self-help widely across Dorset. This will help us to support people to live a good and independent life in their own home and communities and help them make informed choices about their support needs. Through the Sustainability and Transformation Plan, Dorset County Council and health colleagues want to build on the invaluable work done by POPP but are looking at working much more in local places, making sure we join up what is already happening. In practice this means our: Community development workers will be aligned to the developing GP locality health and well-being boards and the work we do in libraries and other local well-being points. Care navigators will work more closely with the social work teams in localities across the county and complement the social prescription approach being developed by the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group and the work of public health focus on health and well-being. This means that the Partnership for Older People’s Programme (POPP) will come to an end and the current service contract with Help and Care will cease at end of September. Help and Care will be working with us to ensure this transition is carried out smoothly.  The Town Council will be supporting the Silent Solider campaign in honour of British troops who fought and died in the First World War 100 years ago by siting two Silent Solders, near life-size silhouettes of a First World War ‘Tommy’ at locations in Stalbridge Due to the adverse weather conditions the Community Information Office will be closed on Friday 02.03.18.
This includes the afternoon tea event. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. |
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