THE CHAIRMAN'S REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2000

By the time you read my review of Broadstone's year we will have passed the first anniversary of the Millennium, and despite all the concerns that services might have broken down because of the "Bug", I am not aware of any problems. The experts were over cautious and no doubt persuaded businesses to spend quite a lot of money in order to "Be Prepared". Thank goodness, there were no catastrophes.

At the beginning of the last century of the past Millennium, Broadstone consisted of only a few houses, a lavender factory and a railway station. The station had been known as "New Poole Junction and Broadstone" until 1890, when the station's name was changed to Broadstone. And at last we were on the map! In fact both Broadstone and Bournemouth were quite unimportant compared with Poole and Wimborne. The railway put Broadstone on the map and on a busy Saturday, about 1(X) trains passed through, including the "Pines Express" from the Midlands and the North. No doubt many passengers saw Broadstone and liked what they saw, and came to live here. Beeching destroyed the railway in 1965 to be replaced by Broadstone Way. Before the track was finally lifted, fuel trains continued to go to West Moors MOD establishment, until that was closed. Broadstone grew from a small group of houses in 19(X) to about .4500 now. The Association's membership is approaching 3000, so we can rightly claim to represent Broadstone comprehensively. With membership costing only £1 it must be good value, since you get two first class magazines and a Newsletter every year. Combine this with the power of a very influential pressure group and you will appreciate that you are getting even better value.

There have been a number of issues taken up on your behalf during the year and with certainty Planning matters form the majority. There is no doubt that developers have and are having a rewarding time in Broadstone locating and developing all the sites, which by destroying the existing house, can profitably yield a site on which it is possible to build one or more new properties. Who can blame them, when central government insists that every local authority have a quota of additional dwellings to build within a rigid timescale. Naturally the developers will be applying for Planning permission to build more dwellings than is in keeping with the housing density in the village. Similarly the owners of properties involved will be anxious to maximise the number of dwellings in order to increase the value of the plot. Many of the objections received by our Planning Officer from residents may have been avoided if the owners of properties subject to development had talked to their neighbours before proceeding with the applications. May I recommend this to any resident who is thinking of any form of Planning Application?

One particular Planning Application, which caused considerable alarm amongst residents, was One-2-One's phone masts. Local residents en-masse, attended a Borough Council meeting to demonstrate their objections. This was followed a few days later by a Public meeting, at which One-2-One explained their position. The residents made it quite clear that they objected strongly to the phone companies cavalier approach. The Planning Applications have apparently been withdrawn. Watch this space!!

Aircraft noise over Broadstone is a topic, which the Executive has consulted with Bournemouth International Airport management. It appears that with the wind in the East, the Instrument Landing approach path lies directly over Broadstone, slightly South of the roundabout at the end of the Broadway. The height of aircraft over Broadstone will normally be 2000 feet and the noise level within the CAA permitted level. However, the CAA has based a Regional test centre at Bournemouth, consequently there is a high degree of instrument training activity at the airfield. The noisy Chinook military helicopters are in fact carrying out such training and circulate many times. You are requested to report excessively noisy aircraft to the airport on 01202 364000.

Lack of car parking space at Corfe Hills School has caused residents nearby to complain about the use of their road space for parking. The school had a policy of allocating only 50 car parking spaces to 6 formers. After some acrimonious discussion between the residents, local councillor and the school, it seems that in the long run there may be a solution. However, in the meantime the residents are not happy. We hope that the present impasse can be resolved to the mutual satisfaction of all parties.

We have at almost every Executive meeting together with the Chamber of Trade, complained to the councillors about the state of the pavements in the Broadway. Work is done but almost immediately lorries and vans park with their nearside wheels on the pavement, undoing most of the remedial work. The only solution may be to have bollards installed the length of the Broadway. After some lobbying we were consulted by the Borough on the introduction of 2 hour parking on some roads adjacent to the Broadway in order to assist shoppers. The initial observations seem to confirm the success of the change.
The Neighbourhood Watch has been rewarded for their efforts in Broadstone by the award to Denis Phillips of the "John Jay" shield for Community Safety. This Association is proud that Denis and Broadstone should be recognised in this respect.

I am pleased to tell you that a commemorative Tree and seat were installed in the Recreation ground, close to the Broadstone War Memorial by the oldest Broadstone Born inhabitant, Mrs Applin (92) and the two youngest children from the two Broadstone First schools, on the 28th October in the year of the third Millennium. The leaders of the churches in Broadstone dedicated both the Tree and the Seat to the use of young and old, independent of class, race or creed in anticipation of the development of many friendships. Several Broadstone organisations contributed to this project. They are the Broadstone Residents Association (1938), Chamber of Trade, Evening Women's Institute, Horticultural Society, Neighbourhood Watch, and Women's' Institute. They, together with Local Councillors and a number of Broadstone Residents were present for the ceremony, which was organised by the Broadstone Residents Association. Both the tree and the seat have an engraved plaque attached to indicate to posterity the significance of these symbols left by this generation hopefully, for future generations.

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