At the Annual Parish Meeting held on 11th April 2023 our Chair, Cllr Bridle, provided an update on our achievements over the last year and our plans for the year ahead…
Oliver’s Park
- Since taking ownership of Oliver’s Park from Dorset Council in 2020, we’ve continued to make many improvements. Over the last year we’ve installed new football goal posts, a new fence by the north entrance, and removed a large area of goat willow encroaching on the field.
- We’ll shortly be installing three new disabled friendly benches near the Scouts hut, and a new pathway from the car park to the playground. In the year ahead we also expect to start work on installing new playground equipment, focusing on the needs of younger children.
Colehill Village Hall and Other Local Groups
- We continue to support Colehill Village Hall, last year paying for new entrance gates and new stage curtains. This year we’ve already provided a grant to help pay for refurbishing the ladies toilets.
- Over the last year we’ve also made grant payments to a number of other local groups including Colehill Library, Friends of Cannon Hill, Dial-a-ride and Colehill Guides.
Environment
- We maintain some large areas of woodland within the parish, including Triangle Woods, Coombes Wood and Churchmoor Copse. We inspect all our woodlands regularly for any diseased or damaged trees that need attention.
- Last year we gave away more free trees to residents to plant in their gardens and this spring have planted many hundreds of trees ourselves in Coombes Wood.
- The permanent Christmas Tree we planted by St Michael’s church was used for the first time at Christmas.
- We planted a number of wild flower beds on verges last year, and plan to plant even more this year.
- We’re currently installing a number of bird boxes, bat boxes and bug hotels around the parish.
The Dirt bike trails in Coombes Wood
- The Dirt bike trails are in Coombes wood which forms part of a conservation area. So as well as ensuring the site is safe for riders to use we also have to be especially mindful of the impact on the local environment.
- The bike trails currently remain closed, as a result of the unauthorised changes made to the site during Covid.
- We recently commissioned an independent safety inspection which highlighted a number of areas of risk. The site will therefore remain closed until we’ve implemented the required corrective measures.
- Once the site re-opens we hope to form a user group, consisting entirely of the public, to support the ongoing development and maintenance of the bike trails.
Road Related Matters
- Although we’re not responsible for the roads, pavements or verges, we do what we can to help improve road safety.
- This year we purchased a new solar powered Speed Indicator Device which is positioned regularly on Wimborne Road, Middlehill Road and Leigh Road. We can see from data provided by Dorset Council that it really is proving effective, reducing the average traffic speed by 10% when it’s in place.
- Dorset Council have agreed in principle that Middlehill Road qualifies for pedestrian crossings, we’re waiting to hear now when they might be constructed.
- We were pleased to be able to support the launch of Beryl bikes across Colehill, Wimborne & Ferndown, making it easier for our residents to access our local town centres.
- We continue to fund the no 88 community bus, to help residents in the more remote parts of the parish.
- We installed a new bench near St Michael’s church to commemorate The Queen’s platinum jubilee and expect to install some additional new benches this year for the Coronation.
Public Events
- Last year we held a number of public events for the Platinum Jubilee – including a quiz night, children’s entertainment, a street party and a live music party night. In total the events were attended by about 400 people, and received very positive feedback.
- In addition we provided party packs for about 500 people in Colehill holding local street parties.
- We held our very popular Christmas Party in the Village Hall again, aimed at younger children.
- We’re working now on our exciting programme of events for the Coronation, including a royal themed quiz night at the village hall on Friday 5th May and a children entertainment day at The Reef on Bank Holiday Monday 8th May.
The Reef
- Towards the end of last year we were approach by the trustees of the Colehill and Wimborne Youth and Community Centre, known to most people as The Reef, to ask if the Council would consider taking over running the building and the youth club, as the existing trustees wanted to retire.
- We agreed that the Council should become the sole member of the Charity from 31st March, which effectively means we now own the Reef charity. We’ve appointed 5 of our councillors to act as the new charity trustees and directors for The Reef.
- The Reef is a modern building, with great facilities. Which provides us with many exciting opportunities to improve the range of youth activities and also provide additional services and facilities for the wider community. We anticipate this acquisition will be highly beneficial for Colehill residents in the years to come.