WPRA Appeal

WPRA was heartened by the amount of support it received in the recent appeal for funding - the sum of £1900 pounds was donated by West Parley residents. This will enable us to go on working for the village, fighting the threats to our environment from unsustainable development proposals, maintaining the flower displays at Parley Cross, and trying to keep West Parley neat and tidy.

To all those who gave - thank you for your support.

WPRA Volunteers Cracking On!

July 2010
West Parley's finest never give up! There has been some wonderful work going on in the neighbourhood, please click here to see what they have been up to!

Neighbourhood Watch
June Newsletter out now

WPRA is pleased to link up with Neighbourhood Watch, an outstanding organisation whose work we all benefit from. To see their latest newsletter . . click here

Register here

to be updated(now and again but not daily!) on important news and events affecting West Parley.

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WPRA May Newsletter Out Now

to get up to date with the latest . .
click here

Affordable Housing

what it is and isn't . .
click here

Memorial Hall

18 Nov 2009
This elderly but capacious and useful Hall is one of West Parley's central features. Unfortunately the surrounds and approaches to the Hall have been rather neglected in recent years and has just been re-turfed!...more

Night Flying
at the Airport

25 Sept 2009,
Night flights are down on last year, and don't look like increasing...more

Village Fete - Saints and Heroes

19 June 2010
For the first time in a number of years, a West Parley Village Fete was held on the Recreation Ground behind the Memorial Hall. It was well organised by Linda Baker and Garnet Lambert and many other helpers, in aid of historic All Saints Church at the bottom of Church Lane, and for our wounded servicemen from Afghanistan.

Blessed by a sunny day, the fete was a considerable success. People flowed in and out in a constant stream all afternoon. There were bands, shows, events, children's races, stalls, try your luck booths, burgers, teas - all the traditional elements of a good English afternoon out with the family.

Those who didn't catch our Rector singing Old Man River in the tea hall missed the finest voice in the district.

It is understood that as well as giving everyone a happy afternoon, the fete raised in the order of £3000 for our servicemen and the historic church.

WPRA thinks the fete should be continued next year - but unfortunately Linda Baker will not be here to do it.

What do you think? Should WPRA and the Parish Council get together to see that it goes ahead? Anyone prepared to help? Give us your views.

West Parley PACT
Partners and Communities Together

Who are we?
We are part of a national scheme set up to engage local communities and find out what issues are important to the residents and then tackle the problems raised. The West Parley PACT had its inaugural meeting on May 19. Representatives of WP Parish Council, WP Residents’ Association, Parley First School, your Safer Neighbourhood Police Team, Dorset Fire & Rescue, Neighbourhood Watch and Memorial Hall Committee are on the PACT Panel.

Our first priorities are parking on Glenmoor Rd outside Parley First School and unnecessary long term parking outside the Parley Cross shopping parade. Further information will appear on the Community noticeboard.

How to contact us:
PCSO Alan Downing can be contacted on 07825 521752 or at alan.downing@dorset.pnn.police.uk

The Clerk to WP Parish council or Chairman of West Parley Residents Association can deal with your enquiries.

WPRA volunteers at work again

March 2010
Now that Spring is here, WPRA volunteers are back on the job of keeping West Parley neat and tidy. Work started 30 March at the historic All Saints Church at the bottom of Church Lane, helping the Churchwarden Derek Hyatt in his sterling efforts to restore the churchyard.

Other work this year - in addition to the all year round task of litter picking and maintaining the flowers at Parley Cross - will focus on keeping the pavements clear and work on the Millenium Garden near the Memorial Hall.

Hurn Waste Plant Plans Scrapped

08 Dec 2009
The centrepiece of Dorset County Council's Waste Strategy, briefed extensively at a series of public meetings this year, was a large scale incinerator waste plant to be built at Hurn Airport.

Needless to say this has been vigorously opposed by local residents on grounds of cost, pollution, danger to aircraft from bird strikes, and local traffic impact. Also, there are now extensive and modern waste disposal and recycling facilities at Canford Magna.

WPRA has just learned that DCC have cancelled their plans for this Waste Plant on grounds of cost and rapidly changing technology, combined with the availability of other local facilities.

WPRA Hosts Reception for Volunteers

23 Oct 2009
Local resident Cllr John Wilson, Chairman of Dorset County Council, was the principal guest at a West Parley Residents Association reception at St Marks Church Hall.

WPRA was thanking the many volunteers who keep the village clean and tidy - watering the flowers, litter picking the roads and restoring the pavements.

In his speech Cllr Wilson said how important community volunteers were to DCC, especially at this time of restricted Council expenditure, and complimented WPRA on what was being achieved.

Parish Plan Latest

1 Aug 2010
At the 16 July meeting some 30 volunteers, councillors and WPRA made a lively and spirited scene in the Memorial Hall at a Parish Plan workshop event, thinking out between them the key questions to be put in our September West Parley all house survey.

This survey will be distributed in mid September, with a freepost reply envelope, and the answers will be the basis on which the parish plan will be built up.

We are trying to think of the big questions here - what do we want West Parley to look like in 10 years time? What facilities do we want it to have? How do we want it to work?

Feel free to have your say on this at any time - an email or letter to any of our committee (contact details on this website) will be welcomed.

Parish Plan Moves On

30 June 2010
Our Parish Plan - our formal statement on what we want West Parley to be in 5 to 10 years (as well as what we don't want it to be!) is moving ahead under the joint leadership of the Parish Council and WPRA.

Workshop Meeting at the Memorial Hall
7.30pm Friday 16 July

The next stage is to compile questions for the all house survey/questionnaire which will go out in September. Remember that this is meant to be a bottom up plan where the views of the residents count most, so it is vital that the questions we ask are the ones that matter.

We are going to work on this at a Workshop Meeting at the Memorial Hall at 7.30pm Friday 16 July - we are asking anyone who is interested in the future of the village and wants to have a say, to come and help us. We must see that all aspects of life get covered in the survey. If you have always thought that West Parley could be improved in some way or another, be there on Friday and see that your point gets written down.

West Parley Parish Plan

26 May 2010
A very successful public meeting, chaired by Richard Heaslip from WPRA and Ron Daw from WPPC, was held in the Memorial Hall on 25 May. Simon Woodcock from the District Council and Margaret Phipps from Hurn Parish Council spoke on their experiences with these plans. John Cullen WPRA expanded on how residents individually could help with inputs on aspects of life and work in West Parley in which they were particularly interested.

As a result we had no less than 24 volunteers, and are well and truly on our way.

The next step will be an all house West Parley survey/questionnaire later in the Summer. This will give us a firm basis of residents views and aspirations for West Parley.

We are always looking for more residents/businesses/organisations to take part in forming this plan, which will be sent to Councils as West Parleys formal statement of how we want the village to be in 5 to 10 years time - what we want (and what we don't want) in the way of community facilities, health care, road safety, paths, traffic, parking, the environment, care for the elderly, housing, shops, recreation and sport etc etc.

If you would like to help, contact
John Cullen (582662) or Richard Heaslip (594982)

New Yellow Bus Route 29

13 Mar 2010
Fancy a day out at the beach or take in the museums and facilities of Bournemouth?

From 19th April a new hourly bus service from Monday to Saturday, 7am to 6pm, will run from West Moors through the centre of Ferndown and West Parley via Winton to the centre of Bournemouth. The new 29 service starts on 19th April.

for more details click here
for Route Map click here
for Timetable click here

Never a dull moment!

05 February 2010
A very lively meeting took place at the Memorial Hall, West Parley with keynote speaker Gemma Coles, Waste Reduction Manager, EDDC, followed by news and views on all the burning local issues.

Our Post Office has a new home

03 Nov 2009.
The Post Office in West Parley has opened in the Pharmacy at Parley Cross.

There was a special opening with a warm welcome from Mitesh Patel, owner of the Pharmacy and the new Postmaster. Outside, the Lions Club were running a raffle with prizes for the first 50 customers. Inside, Mitel was trying his hand (gingerly) at selling stamps instead of prescriptions. The actual Sub Postmaster who will operate the Post Office is Matthew Andrew, who ran the Post Office for a short time after Maureen at the Co-op.

We lost our Post Office in mid September when the Co-op, its former home, closed. Now, in just over 6 weeks, we have it back. There has been a lot of action behind the scenes; credit is due to Post Office Ltd who showed a sense of urgency over the matter, and to Mitesh Patel at the West Parley Pharmacy who is our new Postmaster as well as Pharmacist.

Throop to Hurn footpath - we win.

03 Nov 2009.
Dorset County Council has informed WPRA that it has been decided that the walking/cycling/riding route known as "Sustrans" will go from Throop to Hurn via Pigshoot Lane and not (as Hurn had lobbied hard for) via West Parley and Church Lane.

For the background story.. more

Dorset County Council briefs WPRA on local road plans

Paul Willis, Dorset County Council's Group Manager Transport Planning told WPRA about their plans for £63 million local road improvements. The money will come from Regional Funds and developers contributions. The work is planned for 2016, but it is possible that some money will be available for work to start a year or two earlier.

Their priorities are the connection from the airport to the A338 Bournemouth spur road; Parley Cross; and the Hurn roundabout. They also plan to improve the Chapel Gate roundabout on the B3073, and to put an extra lane on the B3073.

The works have been planned in detail (although there are alternatives for Parley Cross and Hurn Roundabout and some changes may still be made. To see the plans . .click here

Want to keep West Parley looking beautiful? Our new campaign video is complete.
Darian Weir was brought up in West Parley. He now owns a film post-production business in London. See his powerful presentation of our case! Click here to see we mean business!

Now we know where the building sites are.

Instructed by the government, East Dorset District Council has just completed the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment. Bad news for West Parley! ..more