Persistence pays dividends

THE decaying frontage of Woolworth’s old shop has been a blight on the shopping centre of Seaton for too long.

Woolworth pulled out of this prime trading site before the recession started to bite so there’s been little hope of finding a new tenant for such big premises. Business rates alone are said to be £25,000.

With the appointment of local agents (Richardson Gill) there is renewed hope that a new tenant may be found, especially as the landlord has agreed to free rent providing the business rates are covered.

That they have taken this unusual action is very much down to the efforts of John and Rita Buckley, comparative newcomers to Seaton who recognised the town was looking a bit tired and decided to do something about it.

Showing great persistence, Mr and Mrs Buckley set about trying to get the High Street conglomerates to improve their premises. Lloyds Bank and Boots redecorated their buildings, encouraging other independent traders to do the same. 

And their sheer determination has spawned a refreshing community action which tomorrow (Wednesday) will see a group of volunteers turning up outside the unkempt frontage of the former Woolworths building armed with buckets and mops, brushes and paint, to give the eyesore a makeover it needs so desperately.

East Devon District Council are also doing their bit by power washing the front of the building.

There are those, of course, who believe that landlords should be forced to keep their premises in pristine condition. In an ideal world that would be the case and it would seem that most small towns suffer greatly through the neglect of premises once they stop trading.

With all other efforts to smarten up Marine Place having failed, at least the people of Seaton, led by the indefatigable John and Rita Buckley, are trying to do something about it.

I applaud them.

• On Saturday I went to Whitford Show, 48 years after I first covered the village’s annual flower show. That was on World Cup Day 1966 and they installed a black and white television in the village hall. Whitford Show is still going strong, a microcosm of traditional Devon Life at its most charming.  Long may it continue.

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Desperate times call for desperate measures

AN emergency sale of surplus council objects is to be held as part of desperate attempts to fund the town’s economic recovery and repairs to the ailing harbour walls.

Star item at a forthcoming auction will be a 1933 signed copy of the great economist John  Maynard Keynes’ work, The Means to Prosperity, which the council apparently no longer needs.

Other meaningful memorabilia include a rare sepia print of the town centre without a traffic queue, historic 2011 documents from when the authority was master of its own destiny and two threepenny bits found down the side of the chief executive’s sofa.

Sadly, while these items may raise a groat or two here and there, you wouldn’t hold out much hope of it meeting the bill for all harbour wall repairs which could be up to £70 million depending on which wild-eyed council accountant you are listening to.

There are even those grimly smiling council critics who suggest that the authority should practice what it preached at Castle Cove, accept it can’t afford the repairs and allow nature to take its course and reclaim the harbour.

Certainly those using the harbour at the moment, such as fishermen, face the unusual prospect of attaching their mooring ropes to a structure which could easily be somewhat less stable than their own vessels and which has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese.

The only solution not yet touched on is to resort to tried and trusted methods and use convict labour to carry out the repairs.

With a bit of co-operation from police it should be possible to rush through a few bylaws to harness the current rush of tourists, charging them with having too good a time but offering to spare them jail if they donate a couple of days labour heaving a few stone blocks into place or doing a spot of sheet pile riveting.

Desperate times call for desperate measures so, if you’ve got family or friends in another part of the country, invite them down for a few days!

THIS column has commented before on the ludicrous situation of cyclists choosing to ride in the road when they have a perfectly good cycle path right next to them.

It appears that the situation has not got any better and my thanks go to several readers who have contacted me about their experiences.

Of particular note is one driver’s comment about Weymouth Way, scene of two recent tragedies.

He was frustrated at a cyclist he couldn’t get round because of oncoming traffic, vehicles being backed up behind the rider because he chose to pedal along in the road and not on the new path nearby which had been specifically provided for cyclists at great cost.

It was a similar tale on Portland Beach Road where another cyclist headed a giant queue of fuming drivers also unable to get round him because of heavy oncoming traffic.

This cyclist seemed oblivious to the fact he was riding right next to recognised cycle routes on to the island.

I think authorities are going to have to campaign to highlight the need for cyclists to make use of the facilities provided for them because some of them are clearly not going to do so without a nudge or three.

Steve joins cyclists on the Tour de France

WELL-known Weymouth council events manager Steve Davies is never happier than when he is on a bike, so he jumped at an opportunity for a brief break up north during which he could see several stages of the world famous Tour de France.

Inevitably he wasn’t content with just watching and was actually able to join a number of other amateur cyclists riding up one steep Tour climb called Holme Moss.

He was absolutely amazed by spectators two or three deep along the entire route and said: “It was the only time I have been cheered by crowds in my whole life!”

The whole get-away was a revelation for a man steeped in Weymouth tourism life because it was like experiencing the scale of Weymouth Carnival crowds everywhere he cycled.

Even Steve, no stranger himself to the bizarre, couldn’t believe what he was seeing at one point when he met a “French” cyclist decked out in beret, onions and striped shirt on an old bike going up Holme Moss by pedalling backwards to thunderous applause.

A bit of a breather was needed later, so Steve dropped in at a hospitality area....which had been set up in the forecourt of an undertaker’s business. Only in Yorkshire!

Wash your hands!

DON’T read this if you are about to have a tasty meal or a much needed snack.

Gone are the days when pub goers were treated to free little bowls of peanuts and crisps.

That loss was bemoaned in a recent pub conversation in Weymouth where staff in the hostelry were asked what had caused landlords to stop making such popular offerings. The reply when it came caused a few looks of disgust.

Apparently such treats were withdrawn after Health and Safety tests on the remnants of such snacks revealed traces of 17 different types of urine in one bowl alone!

It seems that some drinkers were going to the pub loos, coming out without washing their hands and were then dipping straight in to the snacks, adding a certain piquancy to nibbles consumed by pub goers who tried the snacks after them.

Worryingly, publicly available research reveals the same problem with things such as children’s play equipment and cinema seats! Not surprising when figures show one in three men and one in eight women don’t wash after going to the toilet.

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60 SECOND INTERVIEW: Katie Goodall

ORIGINALLY from Wales, dental hygienist Katie Goodall moved to Lyme Regis with her family when she was nine, attending the Woodroffe School. She studied for her hygiene qualification at Cardiff Dental Hospital and now lives in a small village outside Bridport with husband Gary and their two cats, and works at Lyme Bay Dentistry in Lyme Regis.  

WHAT attracted to you to a career as a dental hygienist?

When I first moved to Bridport I started work as a dental nurse and absolutely loved the job. I think I was destined to have a job working with people. I wanted to be the one treating rather than assisting and immediately began investigating career paths for dentistry. I went back to college, gained my dental nursing qualification and then applied for Cardiff in 2007. In 2008 my dream came true and my hard work had paid off when I was offered a place at Cardiff.   

WHY did you join the team at Lyme Bay Dentistry?

When I first qualified I worked for a number of practices but soon realised I wanted to be able to give my patients quality time and not to mention work in the town I grew up in. I'm extremely privileged to work alongside the experienced and knowledgeable Dr Phillip Bennett. Lyme Bay Dentistry offers me room to progress in my job role, the ability to take on more responsibility and extend my knowledge base.

WHAT are your responsibilities as a dental hygienist?

My responsibilities as a  hygienist are to ensure that patients’ dental hygiene regimes are efficient and effectively maintained by myself. A dental hygienist can scale and polish teeth amongst other more complex procedures. I can also perform the following under the prescription of a dentist; take impressions, whitening treatments, administer local anaesthesia and take radiographs. A dental hygienist can now treat a patient under a new directive called direct access, which means a patient can make an appointment to see me without having a referral from a dentist. This makes it much easier for me to treat those who want to come to Lyme Bay Dentistry just for their dental hygiene appointments - all are welcome.   

HOW important is dental hygiene?

My friends and family will be able to answer this even better than myself! I can't help but take my job home with me and I'm always being asked questions, my husband rolls his eyes pleading don't get her started! On a serious note dental hygiene is paramount for a healthy smile, healthy body. Longevity is the top of most patients priority list these days. Gum disease is caused by the body's response to plaque and bacteria in the mouth, the cleaner the mouth is the less bacteria available to contribute towards not only gum disease but decay.  The cleaner you keep them the longer you keep them! 95 per cent of the population are susceptible to gum disease and everyone notices a lovely smile.   

WHAT do you enjoy about the job?

I love getting to know my patients and building up rapport with them. Making a difference in someone's life and improving their health is paramount to me. Not many people realise the impact dental hygiene has on our health.  

WHAT are your personal interests?

I love socialising with my family and friends and particularly love dining out! I like to exercise and have recently taken up running and completed Plymouth half marathon this April with my husband. I also enjoy Zumba at least once a week. My favourite pastime however is going on holiday!   

WHAT do you like about the local area?

I can't imagine not living by the sea and I just think we are so lucky to live in an area where people pay to come on holiday. I feel like I am on holiday every day. This summer has been exceptional and I have taken every opportunity to sit on the beach during my lunch hours.  

WHAT would you do if you won the Lottery?

It depends how much but I think I'd buy myself a nice house and then take all my friends on the holiday of a lifetime! I love teeth so much I think I'd even carry on working.

WHICH three guests would you invite to your dream dinner party?

Jimmy Carr because I think he's hilarious and could entertain us all, Kylie Minogue because I think she's fabulous I've been a fan since I was little, and David Beckham just to see what all the fuss is about!

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When will we feel the benefits?

IT SAYS a lot about how little time off my boss has when, after nearly two years as deputy editor, I’m finally deputising this column!

But with Philip away on a (brief) trip to Cornwall with his family, it falls on me to write what has become the traditional introduction to your favourite local newspaper.

In this week’s Pulman’s View, the story that sticks out for me is East Devon MP Hugo Swire praising his constituents for their efforts during the economic recovery.

Mr Swire said: “Thanks to the hard work of people in East Devon . . . the economy is now above its pre-crisis peak. It means more businesses creating more jobs, so families can look forward to a brighter, more secure future.”

As a proud community newspaper, we have  always aimed to bring our readers the more positive news stories (although, it has to be said, without shying away from the bad when necessary).

And whilst I wouldn’t wish to knock the sentiments of Mr Swire’s comments, how many of us can completely share his point of view?

Yes, the British economy did grow by 0.8 per cent during the second quarter of 2014, but how many of us are still earning no more – or even less – than when the recession began in 2008?

Yes, East Devon unemployment figures are falling, but they’re still significantly higher than before the recession.

And how many people are stuck on ‘zero hour’ contracts - masking the real figures?

For those struggling to make ends meet and still hunting for work, such comments as Mr Swire’s are of little comfort. Especially as they’re nothing more than pre-election campaign sound bites.

Within the last two weeks, Pulman’s View has reported on cuts to day care services, libraries, youth services, police station front desks, children’s centre services and, of course, hospital beds.

So then, this recovery, Mr Swire – when are the people of East Devon actually going to see the benefits?

• There have been a number of events in the area commemorating the outbreak of World War I over the last few days. The reenactment of the boys from Beer marching off to war was a huge success and memorial events in Axminster attracted more than 200 people. Even now, 100 years on, the bravery of the men who fought in the Great War has not - and will not - be forgotten.                        

James Coles

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60 SECOND INTERVIEW: Jackie Sonner

JACKIE Sonner is headteacher of Wyke Regis Infants School in Weymouth. She was born in Watford and first became a teacher at Sandford First School in Dorset before moving to Manor Park First School in Dorchester and then to Wyke in September 2013. She is married to Andy and the couple have two sons, Michael and William.

WHY do you live in Dorchester?

I think it is a beautiful part of the country and a nice, friendly town.

WHERE do you go for your holidays?

Lots of different places such as Thailand, Malaysia, France and Turkey. We really like to travel.

WHAT is your favourite time of the year?

Autumn because I think it is nice mellow time of the year and both my children were born then.

WHAT is your favourite film?

Dr Zhivago because it has Omar Sharif in it and magnificent settings both historically and geographically. It is that much used expression, “an epic”.

WHAT is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you?

We were in America and survived a crash where our car driver fell asleep at the wheel. We hit a crash barrier and spun round several times. We were lucky to be alive. The car was a write-off but all of us were unhurt.

IF YOU could live your life again what would you be?

I’d still be a teacher. I love it that much. If I really couldn’t be a teacher then I would be a film star for the glamour.

WHICH three people would you invite to your dream dinner party?

Nelson Mandela because he was very inspirational, Emily Pankhurst for her courage and bravery in standing up for what she believed in and Sebastian Coe because of the tremendous work he did with the 2012 Olympics.

WHAT would you do if you won the Lottery?

I guess I’d travel and it would also allow me to pursue other interests such as charity work.

WHAT do you hope the future holds?

The Government letting the teaching profession get on with its job! And world peace.

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Public art a little bit like ‘Marmite’

COLOURFUL debate has been splashed across a broad canvas following the unveiling of Weymouth’s latest offering of public art.

Three pieces totalling more than £75,000 are now in situ at the Weymouth Gateway site off Dorchester Road and feelings have been, to say the least, “mixed” about their impact.

The newcomers have a tough act to follow after more than £330,000 was poured out – some would say down the drain – for the infamous “Stones on Sticks” sculpture at Littlemoor.

Fortunately public coffers have not been embarrassed by the three new pieces which have been jointly funded by New Look and Sainsbury’s.

Essentially we are told they represent a rendition of local memories and tales in the form of rusting plesiosaur heads welded to torpedoes with an ornate chair on top, a bus stop with horns on top and a giant picture frame with wings and etchings.

Of the three, I believe “Torpedosaur” is extremely eye-catching, that the bus stop has missed the bus and that “Frame” is OK if you like that sort of thing.

But if other businesses, Weymouth and Portland council or anyone with more money than sense is planning to inflict more art on this area’s long suffering public then I have one thing to say: “Enough is enough.”

I do not want to stand in front of a broken tailor’s dummy speared into a dustbin garnished with a cross made from rotted fence posts and be told it symbolises the waste of human life in World War I.

I particularly do not want to hear from the council that it is trying to reduce its budget problems by offering the Mayor’s unmade bed for sale in the hope of emulating Tracey Emin’s bed artwork which recently sold for a rumpled £2.2 million.

We are being forced to endure and must continue to suffer the more bizarre Weymouth forays into artwork foisted on us for years to come, so I feel any future public artwork should stipulate a return to more mainstream forms of art such as a Portland stone sculpture figure or an ornate fountain. It is all well and good to show how “progressive” Weymouth is with the Gateway and Littlemoor offerings.

OK, so we’ve been “progressive”. In future let’s balance the books a bit for the sake of sanity and ensure any future artistic project owes a bit more to art and a bit less to reducing the number of landfill objects sent to Dorset rubbish tips.

Can’t see the warnings through the trees!

YOU know those occasions when something happens, you can’t believe it and just burst out laughing?

Well that happened recently at the start of roadworks near Lyme Regis on a hill with a slow curving bend from right to left.

As you might imagine, this was an extremely dangerous position to have to carry out any roadworks and the workmen we found ourselves behind were taking the situation very seriously indeed.

First, they made sure they had a decent audience – the traffic queue behind their flatbed van was soon out of sight – then they chucked down and set up a sign warning that the road ahead would soon have its inner lane closed.

Then they moved another 30 metres round the bend and put down a “roadworks ahead” sign and it was at that point we were able to pull round them and drive on.

By this time my wife had tears of laughter rolling down her face and I still couldn’t believe what I had just seen.

The cause of our disbelief was that, on a dangerous section of rural highway, roadwork signs had been put up in such a fashion that the verge undergrowth almost completely obscured the warnings! The first one in particularly was a waste of time thanks to dense cow parsley.

The mentality that can grasp the need for a safety warning and then totally waste the effort to install one offers a frightening insight into the way local authorities work.

Circus with a difference

IT is amazing what a bit of weathering can do to change the sense of things.

Animal rights supporters should pay particular attention to this because my case in point involves performing stoats who were appearing as one of the attractions in a giant but very battered circus big top.

It was seen together with huge advertising signs painted on its worn surface by a Weymouth man who happened to spot it as he drove by the site.

Just as well he didn’t pursue his interest any further because what he thought was the intriguing “Chinese Stote Circus” actually said “Chinese State Circus”!

I’ve loaned him my daughter’s book on wildlife to help brush up on his spelling!

POLITICS requires an acute brain, a quick and clear grasp of official documents and preferably an ability to avoid providing voters with a foggy response to questions.

So I think I can say without fear or favour that the response provided by one candidate on forms for recent elections to Portland Town Council failed on all three counts.

They coped perfectly with difficult questions such as “Name of Candidate” and “Home Address” but fell at the third hurdle - “Description (if any)” - where candidates provide details of which political party they represent.

The description this candidate provided was: “Blonde, curly hair, grey eyes”!

I’m sure a promising political career is just around the corner!

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Coney Island treatment for the Cobb

IT’S not often that disabled visitors are the subject of finger-pointing at any meeting of Lyme Regis’ town councillors, so it was unusual to see it at the Planning & Highways Committee last week.

Lyme is a welcoming, understanding town. Quite rightly, we provide special parking rights all along the Cart Road so that the disabled can stop on double yellow lines and enjoy the view and facilities, and we turn a blind eye when some of those armed with the precious blue badge then get out of their cars and behave about as disabled as my Aunt Fanny’s electric cat.

Tuesday’s highways committee had effectively convened in the atmosphere of bad atmosphere because disabled visitors are now parking at the bottom of Cobb Road in such clusters that it could cause an accident when an RNLI crew on a shout comes belting down it.

Because there is no specific “no disabled parking” rule in traffic law, the only way to prevent this swarming of blue badgers is to invoke super parking lines, “no loading or unloading at any time whatsoever whomever with knobs on” lines on Cobb Road.

Councillor Chris Clipson and deputy town clerk Mark Tredwin had thought this uber-Achtung prevention would be a good cure for the badger problem when they signed off a map of this proposal from Dorset County Council’s traffic officer. 

The trouble was that in colouring-in the area for this new no-man’s land, those in the Crayons Department at County Hall had illustrated that Cobb Road and Cobb Square should be painted with more yellow than The Beatles’ submarine. 

Clearly, the public servants had not thought through that a wheeze to disable the disabled with “no loading or unloading” would have the repercussion of also disabling – to the point of closure - every single business at Cobb Square which depends upon deliveries. Worse, they had not consulted with The Cobbites on whether any of them minded this wizard plan to force them into bankruptcy. 

Which was why Councillor Clipson and Mr Tredwin were looking especially gloomy as Cobb businesswoman Ashleigh McClements witheringly berated them from the public gallery, as what appeared to be the entire Cobb community seethed behind her.

“How dare you!” castigated Ashleigh as the heads of the hapless councillor and officer shrank into their collars like tortoises.

“How dare you presume that it is OK to prevent deliveries to my business!” she scolded, “you should be ashamed of yourselves!”

A barrage of further battering followed as Cobbites rose to angrily protest that they had not been consulted about the small matter of their impending ruin and in vociferously doing so rammed home the point that you wouldn’t want to mess with this lot on a dark night outside The Standard.

I felt sorry for Councillor Clipson, whose usual well-meaning jolliness at council meetings always reminds me of the affable Mr Pastry of my youth. But despite his protests that it was only a county council idea, nothing had been agreed, Mr Pastry was getting baked at Gas Mark 700 as few in the chamber were falling over to back him up and instead councillors chipped in to say it was a rubbish idea.

“I am most aggrieved that a councillor and officer made this decision,” said Councillor Michaela Ellis, as the poor chaps continued to shrink like Alice in the knowledge that Michaela, even at her moderately aggrieved, is scary. 

“There’s no way that I would agree to no loading or unloading – what about the park and ride bus?”

Ah yes, quite, but nobody from the MENSA Club at the county’s traffic department was present to try return that ace.

“I was horrified [by this proposal],” said Councillor Owen Lovell, “this affects our business community and we should have talked to them.”

“One thing that we don’t do as a council is that we don’t  talk to people,” added newest council member Cheryl Reynolds, making it game, set and match to town common sense over county lack of it, “we need to talk to the town”.

Banned by standing orders

As it happens, councillor, mayor and a Cobbite herself, Sally Holman, had spent most of the previous weekend talking frantically to the Cobb businesses, assuring them that this proposal was a complete cock-up and she would not let it happen. Sally could have helpfully told the meeting all of this, but she was banned by standing orders as she had “a pecuniary interest”, being a Cobb resident. Or, as every other sphere of business would call it, “an expert”. But you know what the councils are like about preferring to be arcane about rules.

But, and possibly encouraged by a ceaseless barrage of heckling by Cobbites who didn’t do rules, committee chairman Anita Williams suddenly chucked standing orders out of the window. 

Having made it plain that she personally considered this “Mothball The Cobb” proposal to be as smart as Air Icarus, Anita re-opened the floor to the Cobbites to ask for their steer, irrespective of any “interest”. What did they think was the nub of the problem here?

It was then that Mike Higgs, deputy harbourmaster, outed the elephant in the room. The problem was not whether the tortoise twins agreed to whatever, nor whether the county’s traffic officer had the faintest clue about how to either run a business or do a nice drawing, nor whether Cobb Road should be double yellow-striped, quadruple yellow-striped or whether a traffic warden of Usain Bolt-like fitness should be employed to enforce parking restrictions on the planet’s steepest hill.

No, the problem was, said Mike, the disabled drivers.

“They come down the road and see a car parked at the bottom with a blue sticker and they think ‘I’m going to do the same’,” said Mike, with blunt honesty.

Now, Mike and I have a very, very dear disabled friend and both of us would let him park on our heads if it meant that he could without great difficulty join us in The Cobb Arms for a pint, and I’m sure that everyone at The Cobb and in the council and indeed the town feels the same. 

But my friend is a local and locals know that, disabled or not, you don’t park on Cobb Road, especially in the summer. 

But as Mike pointed out, visiting disabled people don’t know that... there’s no signs to say please don’t park here, it’s an emergency access, there’s a call-out almost every day and by parking here it makes it “a death trap”.

“So what do you need?”asked vice-chairman and former Cobb businessmam Terry O’Grady, looking as hacked-off as anyone that Lyme’s principal tourist attraction should be facing closure.

“Can we have traffic cones at the bottom of Cobb Road?” said Mike.

“Yes, just do it. Get the police on it”, said Terry, as the committee encouraged Cobb businesses to, in the meantime, phone the police every time they see a disabled car parked obstructively as the council arranged to make a coney island of The Cobb.

There may be a lot of calls. I hear that there are not enough police cones in Lyme and the town will have to buy new ones at a tenner a time from police HQ, if they have any spare.  

We could do something as outrageous as put up a sign, but we don’t know if county hall has the crayons for that.

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