This will be my last report as your County and District Councillor as both the County and District Council’s ceased to exist on the 1st April and were replaced by the Dorset Council. Along with three others I am putting my name forward in the Dorset Council Elections on 2nd May but at this point who knows what the outcome will be.

It has been eight years since I became your District Councillor and six since I became your County Councillor. The main local authority theme running through those years has been Highways – speeding, vehicle size, road conditions, parking and potholes. The next most important theme as been planning – where properties are proposed, what the properties are for, density of building, impact on neighbours and whether or not the parish should do a Neighbourhood Plan. I fear it will be ever thus under the new Council. The main issue raised with me outside of local authorities matters is that of local policing and unhappiness with the service provided in the rural area. The next most important is that of rural transport. Our rural area has changed from the long settled dairy farming area I grew up in to an area which is increasingly urban in its population and in the expectations of that population, the majority of whom are newcomers from towns and cities elsewhere.

I thank all those who have worked with me over the years as your Councillor, especially in those parishes which will no longer be part of the Blackmore Vale Ward, should I be successful in being elected as its councillor.

Pauline Batstone
County and District Councillor
Elvlyn Cottage,
Glue Hill,
Sturminster Newton
Dorset DT10 2DJ
Clr.p.batstone@btinternet.com
Facebook – Councillor Pauline Batstone