INCORPORATING ALDERNEY NEWS

News and information about North Poole – Alderney, Rossmore, Wallisdown, Upper Parkstone, Branksome & Bourne Valley

Click the appropriate link (or logo) for the site you are visiting – Some headline items below on this page

Poole Music Web Site established 1998 - Alderney News established 1999

Current time and temperature at Bournemouth (Hurn) Airport – about 5 miles from Alderney, Poole

Playbuilder In Crisis

Year 2 schemes in the Borough of Poole Playbuilder program have been suspended following changes to the funding regime. Originally the previous Government had allocated over £1.1 Million spread over 2 years. The Council then programmed 11 play area improvements in year 1, and 11 in year 2. Back in June 2010 the new Coalition Government cut £2.9M in grant to Poole Council. Though Playbuilder was not cut the money was “unringfenced” – meaning it could be used for any purpose the Council saw fit. Your Ward Councillors and other colleagues challenged the Council to keep this funding available for it’s original purpose. A compromise was reached which we felt we could work with. Unfortunately since then the Government has taken the money back and asked Councils that if they still wanted to go ahead and deliver schemes that had to bid for the money scheme by scheme. This would depend on the Council working up each of the remaining 11 schemes into a separate bid. As of the time of writing Poole Council has decided to abandon the program altogether and suspend all work on them. Cllr. Tony Trent has set up a Facebook campaign to galvanise a mass lobbying campaign to get the Government and Council to honour the Year 2 Playbuilder schemes (see separate item for link). Meanwhile here is a link directly to the Borough of Poole Leisure Services Web Page on the subject.

http://www.leisureprojects.net/Playbuilder/home.htm

THIS SITE WILL BE UPDATED MORE FULLY SHORTLY, meanwhile here is a link to the Facebook page created in response to the Playbuilder funding crisis – please check it out...

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=134533629915338

ALDERNEY WEST FUN DAY & CELEBRATION of 2 years of the volunteer run youth club (see news items on other pages). There will also be a ceremony to name the Multi Use Games Area after the late Councillor Bob Dugdale, who fought so hard for his local community. The Fun Day takes place THIS WEDNESDAY 28^th JULY (2010) from 1 to 4pm at the Alderney West Community Centre, end of Bedford Road South. There will be another fun day at the Bourne Valley Youth Club organised by residents of the Rossmore/Bourne Estate area on Thursday 5^th August from 1 to 4pm.

ALDERNEY WEST MUGA OPEN

The new multi use games area (MUGA) was officially opened on Saturday 16^th January. It has been constructed on part of the community centre car park. It had originally been hoped that this would have been completed in time for the summer school holidays and the first anniversary of the volunteer run youth club (29/07/09). The work also involved putting in better drainage, and surfacing the community centre car park. At the time of writing there were still markings to be put down, and the planning permission for floodlights had still not been dealt with.

The Mayor Charles Meachin (pictured right) with volunteer helpers (left, Paul Curtis & Bob Peachey) at the youth club birthday fun day – July 2009.

Ward Councillors Lindsay Wilson, Charles Meachin & Tony Trent at the opening of the MUGA on January 16^th.

FOR MORE ABOUT THE YOUTH CLUB – click here

YOUTH CLUB VOLUNTEERS GET CIVIC AWARD – click here

Click here for a page of useful information on current climate science.

EDDIE ARGOS DOES IT AGAIN...

Former Rossmore lad, and Art Brut front man, Eddie Argos has recorded an album with his second ‘super group’ “Everybody was in The French Resistance ... Now!”

This project involves Eddie and Dyan Valdes from US band The Blood Arm (check out their 2006 album “Lie Lover Lie”). Though the album “Fixing The Charts Vol. 1” had not been officially released until January 2010, it slipped out as a very reasonably priced download (£4.99 at the time of writing) from Amazon. A link is included below... http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0031MJFA0/

The album has an interesting line in song titles, indicating that someone had a parent with a varied and odd record collection (view the Amazon page for titles and samples of each track). I’m still trying to confirm that “Waldo P. Emerson Jones” was a cheesy track circa 1970 from UK girl fronted group “Pickettywitch” – and from what I can remember of it I am disturbed that I remember it!

Eddie’s previous side projects include “Glam Chops” (2008) involving key members of David Devant and his Spirit Wife & Carter USM, though this outfit has not got as far as producing an album (though they did release a Christmas single in 2008 - which might still be linked to the Poole Music page).

“Everybody was in The French Resistance ... Now!” will be embarking on a mini UK & European tour in February / March starting at Dingwalls in Camden (made famous in The Stranglers “London Lady”) on February 9th.

Site Editor

For more Poole Music info (unfortunately not recently updated) – click here

BOURNE ESTATE GETS GRANT FOR MANAGER

The Bourne Estate area of Rossmore has been given a grant from the Government’s Department for Communities and Local Government. This is one of just 27 grants given out across the UK, and is targeted at communities where there is a high level of deprivation, and where research shows that residents feel less engaged in the wider community.

This grant, which was applied for by Poole Council’s Community Planning section, is mainly to enable the Council to employ a Neighbourhood Manager. There will also be some funding support for other community development work. We hope that by bringing in this extra resource, it will help throughout the ward. There are lots of projects under development, some with Government funding, to improve large areas of the Alderney Ward, but the Council does not have the manpower to see these through.

For more Alderney News click here – Web Site for Parliamentary Candidate (Lib Dems) for Alderney

On other pages... Concern Over Costcutters | St. Aldhelms Academy | Councillors Expenses | Overdevelopment Fears Improving Open Spaces | Govt. “Playbuilder” Fund Schemes for 2010/11

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NEW!!! Local History Links (this will be built up as interesting sites giving historical and background information about the Branksome & North Poole areas are found. Please let us know about any that you find that may be of interest – site editor)

WHY DO WE NOT CELEBRATE LOCAL SUCCESS?

This site has banged on for nearly 12 years about talent that originated from this area not being widely known or celebrated. Most recently we have been reminding you of former Rossmore lad Kevin Macklin (known to the world as Eddie Argos) travelling the World fronting the band he formed, Art Brut. The site editor himself was not aware of ex Kemp Welch pupil Robert Hart, who recently enjoyed a prolonged spell in the US charts, as frontman for The Jones Gang (also featuring ex Small Faces and Who member Kenny Jones) with singles “Angel” and “Gypsy Lane”.

Thankfully of late, supported by the site editor, there have been more efforts made to nurture local talent. The Bourne Valley Youth Club offers rehearsal space, and is looking to add a recording studio. There are a number of projects in local schools and youth services that recognise the need to help youngsters develop their musical skills. It’s a far cry from the mid 90s when everybody seemed to be afraid of encouraging such activities. The children of the 60s might have made good music, but they seem to behave nowadays more like their parents did back then.

Site Ed (also a child of the 60s and 70s).

A BIT OF HISTORY... This site was created in 1998 to provide information about Poole Music Festival (1997 – 2001), and was maintained afterwards to celebrate locally sourced music talent and provide useful links for budding young musicians and music fans. Things have moved on quite a bit since 1998. The music festival seemed to have made more people aware of the potential of music making, and far more support is now available in the area. We will leave it to others to be “on the ball”, but hopefully we will highlight some of the talent that lurks within the BH12 area of Poole.

Check this link out...

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=56414118694&h=kiCIP&u=ZeHSJ

A whole new take on Branksome!

This is the third album by Art Brut, fronted by ex Rossmore (Kemp Welch) lad “Eddie Argos”, or Kevin Macklin as was, and was released in April 2009. The band have had rave reviews and have toured around the world since being championed by the late John Peel. Click the cover for more info, or go to the Poole Music page. They also have a well maintained Myspace page.

POOLE GETS OWN COMMUNITY RADIO. Poole now has its own community radio station. The Bay 102.8 serves the Bournemouth and Poole area with a mixture of music and local information. Unlike the other local commercial stations it is not part of a National chain of stations which presents a “brand” that exists to sell commercials to target consumers. The Bay is a genuine community radio station and, amongst other things, provides a radio version of the classified ads. The Site Editor (who tends mostly to listen to the National BBC stations) tuned in and found The Bay sounding remarkably professional, and less musically restricted and repetitive than most local radio. He’s even heard a couple of fresh new tracks – something you no longer hear on the big two, and at the time of writing even heard a Doctor Feelgood track you would only normally hear on BBC 6 Music. Give The Bay a listen on 102.8 FM, or on line at www.thebayradio.com.

BBC 6 Music Now Saved (for the time being) but why not keep in touch with the campaign to keep that so.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=1070903980#!/group.php?gid=278123313911

Please click the link above to join Facebook page to support this station, so essential for new music and interesting older stuff...

NEW!!! “A Sustainable Future?” c/w dedicated feedback facility – click here! & Local History Links (also new)

OTHER MEDIA…

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