Robert Gould

Funding boost for new pool

Robert Gould — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 19:23:50 +0000

It is not every day that someone hands you a cheque for £72,000! Last Friday morning I was delighted to be presented with for this sum by Leslie Phillips on behalf of the Dorchester Swimming Bath Trustees. This was a very generous gesture: the trustees have been campaigning for a new pool in the county town since 1975 and some of the money handed over can be traced back even further to donations made by local people prior to and during the Second World War. Leslie is a former mayor of Dorchester and has a tremendous record of public service in the town and across the district. He told me he recalls the fund being started with small donations whilst he was at school, so it is satisfying that he will soon see the project brought to completion. We are very grateful to him and all the trustees for their work over the years: this generous contribution will certainly help the project on its way.

Charles Street progress

Robert Gould — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:34:16 +0000

It is good to see that work is progressing well on the first phase of the Charles Street development. This photo, taken last Thursday, shows that things are starting to take shape now that the steel frame is being erected. Regular meetings are taking place with local businesses and the Dorchester BID to try to minimise the impact of the work. Larger signs have been put up to direct pedestrians to the Hardye Arcade and to let motorists know that Wollaston Field car park now has 154 short stay spaces. Meanwhile, the new park and ride facility at the Weymouth end of the new Relief Road is becoming more popular with commuters from that direction. All day parking there costs £1.50 for up to six passengers. During the work, Dorchester remains very much open for business.

Swimming pool takes shape

Robert Gould — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:56:26 +0000

The last two months have seen dramatic progress on the new Dorchester Leisure centre. This latest photo shows that, since my last post in June, the pool has really taken shape and now actually contains water! The project is moving forward very well and is on schedule for completion in March 2012.

Buckland Newton homes completed

Robert Gould — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:05:43 +0000

Today I was delighted to attend the official completion of the Buckland Newton Community Housing Project, now to be known officially as Lydden Meadow. The last time I wrote about this pioneering scheme was back in February and the progress since then has been remarkable: a building site has been transformed into ten of the most attractive and well-designed affordable homes I have seen, constructed to a very high specification to ensure low running costs. Ten local families will be moving in, starting next week, with five homes to rent and five for shared ownership. It has been a real partnership project supported by the District Council, the Homes and Communities Agency and the Tudor Trust with construction by C G Fry and Son. However, the real driver has been the local community itself: despite various set backs over the years they have been determined to see the project through to success and they now have a development of which they can be very proud. The challenge now will be to try to replicate this scheme elsewhere.

Groundbreaking

Robert Gould — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:29:16 +0000

On a beautiful Monday morning it was exciting to attend the long-awaited groundbreaking ceremony for the new Charles Street Development. After years of planning and preparation, work is now underway and good progress has already been made. WDDC chairman Gillian Summers joined forces with the chairman of the County Council, John Wilson and Paul Hodgkinson of developers Simons to do the honours, underlining the fact that this is a real partnership project. The first phase of work consisting of the new WDDC offices, adult learning centre and library should be complete and occupied by the end of next year. With the current need for increased efficiency and more savings the move is a major step in the council’s strategy to protect services and keep council tax low. The second phase will follow, bringing £60m of private investment and over 600 new private sector jobs with shops, hotel, affordable housing, 485 space public car park and more. Of course, there will be some disruption during construction and the council will be doing all it can to reduce the impact.

More affordable homes

Robert Gould — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 10:10:20 +0000

One of the most satisfying results in our Annual Report on performance to be presented to our Executive Committee next week is the number of affordable homes provided in West Dorset in the past year. Our target was to provide 110 new homes but we have substantially exceeded this by delivering 128. It is a particularly good achievement bearing in mind that activity in the private housing sector is still fairly slow. Many of these new homes are at Dibdin View at Bridport where 37 rented and 17 shared ownership properties have been built and the first residents are now moving in. It’s a great to see this project come to fruition: the District Council has been actively involved since it allocated the land for affordable housing back in 2006. To kick-start the development it made the land available to Magna Housing for just £1, the equivalent of an investment of £575,000

Leisure Centre progress

Robert Gould — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:57:17 +0000

I last wrote about progress on the new Dorchester Leisure Centre back in February when all you could see was a large hole in the ground. Now, as you can see from this photo which was taken this week, things are really moving ahead. The steel frame is now in place and outline of the building is becoming clear. It is very exciting to see the progress on site after all the years of planning.

It’s good to be back

Robert Gould — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:17:35 +0000

It’s now a month since the election result and it’s been rather a hectic few weeks but now it’s time to resume the blog. I was delighted with the result and honoured to be re-elected leader at the annual meeting of council on May 19th.The outcome was a very clear endorsement of what we have been doing over the last four years and now we can move forward with renewed enthusiasm. We will build on our record of providing high quality services and keeping our tax level low whilst exploiting the opportunities offered by the Localism Bill to shape the future of our district. I am especially looking forward to working with our excellent new members who will add a new dimension to our thinking. It will be an exciting time and as if to underline the fact that we are starting a new chapter, yesterday work started on the Charles St site. That’s one argument that was clearly settled by the election!

District Council Elections

Robert Gould — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 19:42:46 +0000

Elections to the District Council (together with town and parish council and the referendum on the Alternative Voting system) will take place on May 5th. The formal notice of these elections will be published tomorrow (Monday March 14th) and from that date there are strict rules about council publicity during an election campaign. So I will not be updating this blog again until after the election (depending on the result!). The work of the council will, of course, continue in this period.

Charles Street latest

Robert Gould — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 19:59:54 +0000

It’s very encouraging that we are now moving into a new stage of this exciting project. Work will soon commence on the new offices and the County Council’s new adult education centre and library. But more exciting is the prospect of the next phase of the project: £60 million worth of private investment and 660 new private sector jobs. These would be welcome at any time, but are especially so during one of the most economically challenging periods in living memory.

The smaller cheaper to run offices are a key part of our budget which provides for a freeze in our low level of council tax and no cuts to services. All the latest information on the project can be found here