Keep West Parley Green
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| Welcome to the website for the West Parley Residents Association (WPRA). We aim to provide a voice for the residents of West Parley and to keep you informed of developments and issues affecting our area. We work closely with both our Parish and East Dorset District Council in order to ensure residents interests are represented. We are registered with the Dorset Federation of Residents Associations and East Dorset District Council. OUR CONSTITUTION - please click here to read constitution YOUR COMMITTEE Chairman - Dick Heaslip Secretary - Paul Timberlake Treasurer - Dave Oakley Committee Members: Bernie Breeze, John Cullen, Mrs Della Edwards, Alan Macdonald, Arnold Pearce, Derick Smith The Residents Association has grown out of the action group “Keep West Parley Green” which was formed in response to the announcement by the South West Regional Assembly of a proposal to build 900 high density houses in the green belt at West Parley (which currently has some 1550 houses). The semi rural character of West Parley would be lost for ever. It would consume the green belt fields at Parley Cross and also to the south of the B3073 Christchurch Road at Dudsbury. The roads, at maximum capacity already, would be chaos, and the rest of the infrastructure simply would not cope with such growth. We want to protect our environment and will need your help and support. This campaign is ongoing. In response to public concerns, East Dorset District Council has recently come out against the plan. It is now going to an Examination in Public, starting April 2007. It will then go through the Government mill for a year or so. We need to watch it at every twist and turn, so that we do not get by passed or overtaken by events. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMUNICATION If there are is anything you wish to bring to the attention of the Association, concerns, problems, news or local interest items please contact us at the following: email: contact@keepwestparleygreen.org.uk phone: 01202 594982 Or contact: The Chairman The Secretary Mr R Heaslip Mr P Timberlake 8 Longfield Drive 8 Brierley Avenue West Parley West Parley BH22 8TY BH22 8PE Phone: 01202 594982 Phone: 01202 573213 For residents with email we can send news bulletins direct. If you wish to be kept updated in this manner please complete the details on our contact/register page - accessed here. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CURRENT PROJECTS West Parley Survey A massive undertaking to seek the opinions of ALL residents, which we believe hasn’t been attempted before. The results will represent the authentic voice of West Parley - a real democratic mandate that our Councils and Councillors will have to respect. We must thank all the many volunteers who hand delivered over 1700 questionnaires, Ian Davis who organised this army of wonderful local residents, Alan MacDonald who has undertaken the massive task of collating the results, and all of you who took the time to answer the questions and post them back to us. Thanks also to those who have kindly given donations. The association currently survives thanks to your generosity and we could not have undertaken the survey without your help. We will have the results back, assessed and ready for release in February. The response is already huge, but we want it to be overwhelming. Every voice counts. Please ask your friends and neighbours if they have sent theirs in yet. Survey forms can be downloaded from this website here. FUTURE PROJECTS Newsletter We hope to produce a newsletter on a periodic basis for all West Parley households. It would be good to be able to include and reach all residents who are unable to access information via a computer. We are currently looking into the logistics of this and will be investigating the use of advertising to cover the cost of printing. Anyone wishing to advertise in the proposed newsletter, or on this website, please contact us. Local Plan West Parley Parish Council are investigating the production of a local plan. WPRA have been invited to attend the preliminary meeting to hear what this would involve and how it could benefit and protect West Parley. News on this will follow shortly. |
| CONTACTS: Phone: 01202 594982. Email: contact@keepwestparleygreen.org.uk |
"Dedicated to keeping West Parley Green"
| History / Background: |
| WEST PARLEY West Parley’s Historic, Demographic and landscape character as an individual community History West Parley is older than Bournemouth, and older than all the towns and villages in its immediate vicinity. Its name derives from the Saxon “Pirigen Leah” or Pear Tree Field. Featured in the Domesday Book [1086], West Parley had 60 inhabitants. Earlier than that, and on the side of the river Stour, is the tiny All Saints Church, which still retains features from its Saxon origin. Around the church are clustered a few cottages, a Georgian rectory and a 1780s farmhouse, all in open countryside and giving the location a timeless feel. To the South West of West Parley is Dudsbury Rings, the remains of an Iron Age fort on a distinctive hill overlooking the river. To the East is Parley Common, manorial land until 1575, later divided into strips for grazing and turf cutting. It is now a nature reserve, and specially protected heath land site (SSSI). Demographic West Parley is a Parish in its own right, with a Parish Council, Church, Village Hall, First School, and two pubs. The population of West Parley at the 2001 Census was 3532. Particular characteristics of the population are that 33.3% are aged 65 or over, whilst only 13.7% are 15 or below. 95.6% of houses are owner occupied. Landscape and visual character West Parley, once a small village surrounded by countryside, is still isolated from nearby towns except for a half mile width of recent housing development to the North joining it to Ferndown. To the East of West Parley is a mile’s width or more of open countryside, comprised of a golf course; the nature reserve of Parley Common; and well treed arable land characterised by horse pastures, riding schools, smallholdings and nurseries. The boundary of West Parley to the South is the river Stour, one of Dorset’s most prized natural features, which flows right through the County. It carries with it a mile of open greenbelt country separating the village from the conurbation of Bournemouth. This necessary separation, only broken at present by a few houses along the N/S link of New Road, would be decisively destroyed by the siting proposed for the 900 houses specified in the Regional Spatial Strategy. To the South of West Parley is the sylvan scene of open fields, horse pastures bordering the river, the ancient fortifications of Dudsbury Rings, and the Dudsbury golf course with the Stour Valley Path Trail between it and the Stour. Continuing to the Western edge of West Parley, between the river Stour to the South and the town of Ferndown to the North, there is a 3 mile N/S stretch of open countryside containing only the hamlets of Longham and Hampreston and the ancient Abbey of Stapehill. Summary West Parley is a site of recorded occupation from the Iron Age, through the Saxon period, the Norman invasion, and medieval times, until the present day. It is now a self contained community of only 3500 inhabitants, containing all the elements traditional to a village. It is surrounded on all sides (except for a half mile strip of housing to the North) by open land of serene beauty almost all of which is greenbelt and/or nationally and internationally protected areas. |
| The DANGER: |
| Regional Spatial Strategy Proposed 900 house project on Greenbelt Land at West Parley IRREPARABLE DAMAGE TO THE ESSENTIAL FABRIC OF WEST PARLEY The above brief description of West Parley’s historic, demographic and landscape characteristics shows it to be a village under threat, but a village which still retains its long history and the essentials of a village, and is 90% surrounded by open countryside of some historic distinction. The 3500 inhabitants are almost entirely owner occupiers. It is not a place of transient population, but of settled families, mostly of above average age, there for the long haul. 900 houses built over a short time would swell the population by some 2250 (at 2.5 per house). This increase of two thirds would swamp West Parley, altering the make up of the community beyond recognition. Perhaps even more importantly the loss of the greenbelt sites in question (to the south of the B3073 Christchurch Road and Parley Cross) would essentially sever the mile of open green belt country which presently divides West Parley from the Bournemouth conurbation. Past planning decisions have always protected this division between West Parley and Bournemouth. To reverse this now would destroy anything that could legitimately be called West Parley, leaving in its place a northern suburb of Bournemouth. The loss of another English village, and the loss of associated greenbelt recreation and breathing space that could not be replaced, would be seen and felt as a wanton act of destruction. |
WEST PARLEY RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
| PUBLIC MEETING - Waste Strategy 7:30pm on Friday the 17th of October at West Parley Memorial Hall. Come and hear Dorset Waste Planners explain their latest Waste Strategy. This Involves us recycling more and processing waste locally. Come along, ask questions, and make your views known. |