The Blandford Blog

Following a wave of complaints from householders, about companies ringing up and offering free alarms, Dorset police have issued a warning.

The companies offer a free alarm but also ask about the home owners existing home security. While these may be legitimate companies, you should never give details about your home security to strangers who ring you up out of the blue.

Many of the phone calls also claim the company is endorsed by Dorset Police. A police spokesman said “Dorset Police do not endorse any particular companies and companies who make false or misleading claims can commit offences and should be generally avoided by the public”.

If you are interested in upgrading your home security you should get at least three quotes from fully credited, reputable security providers. You should also make sure any products you are interested in comply with current British ad European standards. Never entertain any business that cold calls, either by phone or at the door. If you do get a cold caller a polite “No thank you” is all you need then either put the phone down or close the door.

If you are interested in a product from a cold caller then take that persons name and contact details. Then shop around and compare the product with similar products available from other companies.

How’s this for the ideal job. A man has advertised a job, paying £7 per hour plus expenses, and the job is to go drinking in the local pub to keep his father company. I suppose the “plus expenses” means you get your beer and crisps paid for!

The advert was posted in a New Forest Post Office by the son of a man who has just moved to the area and is missing his drinking pals. Not surprisingly there were 10 applicants ranging from 16 years old to 78 years old.

A spokesman for Age Concern said that it is a very common problem for the elderly. As they get older their friends get less and if they have to move they can end up isolated and lonely. This man is to be commended for using his initiative in placing the advert.

I agree, and do hope one of the applicants is suitable and the old gentleman finds a new friend too.

Poole council have just been caught spying on a 3 year old girl and her family for nearly three weeks. They did this because the little girl’s parents put her name down for a school and the council wanted to see if she lived in the catchments area for that school. So they send someone to spy on her, and her family!

The council defend spying on this family, taking photographs, making notes about their movements etc. by saying they are allowed to under the RIPA laws.

These laws were designed to track terrorists and criminals, not people applying for a place at a primary school! The Home Office web site says this about the RIPA laws.

“The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) legislates for using methods of surveillance and information gathering to help the prevention of crime, including terrorism.”

No mention of using it to validate a school place application!

These councils have over stepped the mark and should be stopped.

Is the nation getting fatter?

Well South Western Ambulance Service NHS think so.  They have just announced that they will be replacing their fleet of ambulances with bigger one to accomodate the increasing number of “supersize” patients they have to carry.

These new ambulances will cost £20,000 more than the existing ones, but are needed to prevent injury to ambulance staff and to patients themselves.

Apparently, since April 22 ambulance staff have been injured while moving “supersize” patients.

The new ambulances will have the capability to carry an especially designed stretcher trolley for larger than normal patients.

The award for Plonker of the Week this week has to go to the prison service on The Isle of Wight.

Due to an “error” an arsonist, who had been sentenced to serve 30 months, was let out after serving only 30 days.

Someone got their days and months mixed up and let him go after 30 days instead of 30 months. Of course, the arsonist did not point out the error, instead he just legged it and hasn’t been see since.

The local chicken factory, located just outside of town in Oakford Fitzpaine has announced it will be closing on 1 September 2007.

The factory employs around 120 people, mostly from Blandford, and it will be a big blow to the area. Jobs are few and far between in Blandford and another 120 people looking for work will only make things worse.

The local MP blames the government for the factory closing, as it could not compete with overseas competition that do not have the same restrictions placed on them as the British poultry industry has.

Apparently a visitor to Bournemouth Square was so disgusted with the rubbish lying around that he/she sent an email to the Mayor complaining about it.

The Mayor has now called for action to clean up the rubbish-strewn streets. That’s all very well, but why did it take an email from a visitor to get him into action? Surely, as Mayor of Bournemouth, he knew the streets of Bournemouth were “rubbish-strewn” before the visitor complained!

A quote from him “How can we be a world-class resort if we cannot even keep the centre clean”

Unfortunately, part of the problem lies with a council and Mayor who do not do anything about the problem until someone complains.

The local brewery, won’t name them here, are proposing to build a more modern brewery on the site of their old soft drinks complex.

This will free up land where their current brewery is. Using this land, and the adjacent unused land, they intend to build 200 houses.

All very nice, but the adjacent unused land is unused for a reason. It’s a flood plain! Each winter, every time it rains heavy the land gets covered in 3 feet of river water.

I thought the government had stopped the building of homes on flood plains, if they haven’t they ought to!

The County Council have applied to the lottery for £1.9 million to help build a state of the art library for Blandford.

If they get the grant it will go towards building a brand new library on their site in west street. This will replace the rather cramped library in The Tabernacle.

For me it will mean a 15 minute walk to the library, instead of the current two minute walk. The will be no hardship and if we get a better library then it will be worth it.

According to the council, the new library will have every facility a library could want. But it all depends on getting the grant from the lottery.

Don’t hold your breath, the site on west street is a patch of waste ground that has had a sign on it saying “Site of the new Blandford Library” since 1998. Nothing has been done to the site in ten years

Blandford, according to the Dorset Data Book 2006, has a population of 8,910 with the number of dwellings being 4,434.

Not sure if this includes the Army camp which is about 1 mile out of town and, currently, home to The Royal Signals Regiment. The camp has around 3,000 military and civilian personnel, and is without doubt the biggest employer in the town.

Unfortunately, the MOD want The Royal Signals to move to Wales, and has said they will. This will devastate the town in terms of employment, but we are hoping that another regiment will move into the camp and keep the civilians in employment. It will be a devastating blow if the camp closes altogether.

There will be more posts about the camp in the future, I’m sure of this as it is such a big part of the town.