The Blandford Blog

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.

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.

Well, the big news for Bournemouth this week was the appearance, in a night club, of none other than Prince William. The Prince, along with some army mates was spotted at Elements Night Club at the weekend. He, and a group of his army pals turned up around midnight and stayed until closing time at 3:30am.

The Prince appeared to be really enjoying himself, drinking pints of lager, dancing and even posing for mobile phone photos with several girls. When the management came out and offered him the use of the VIP area, the prince refused and said he preferred to stay with the rest of the crowd. Well done William, it’s nice to see a member of the royal family behaving like a normal person.