A Happy New Year!
Planning Enquiry
In a couple of weeks there will be an inquiry into the controversial (and extremely unpopular) plans to redevelop the St Michael's Trading Estate. The proposers of the plan are appealing the decision by the West Dorset Planning Committee to reject their proposals (twice).
Their redevelopment proposals would spell the end of St Michael's Studios and threaten the jobs of over 200 people who work on the trading estate, thereby destroying this vibrant industrial park and the community who work there, and replacing it with a massive (unwanted) housing development.
Why are they trying to get these plans through? Because the whole site is currently designated as an industrial park, and if it receives residential planning approval then the land would immediately triple in value! If that happened it would immediately be sold to developers...
The inquiry takes place at Parkdean in West Bay, from 10am on Tues 26 January 2010.
I'd like to invite EVERYONE to come along to the 1st day of the inquiry, as it's important that we show the inspector the strength of feeling in Bridport about our future.
For more information about this issue please visit the Real West Dorset website.
Forthcoming Book and Exhibition - "Portrait of the Artist"
I've had a busy start to the New Year organising a series of interviews between local artists and writer Lu Orza, for a book we're publishing in April called "Portrait of the Artist", that will also feature photographs by George Wright. This will tie in with an exhibition at the Bridport Arts Centre of works from many artists at the forefront of our vibrant art scene.
Panoramic Landscape
I've been working on an ambitious landscape panorama called "View from Leweston Hill", which has a view from the lower part of the hill looking west across the Marshwood Vale towards Pilsden Pen and the sea. It's a private commission, but I'm planning on having a public unveiling of the work once it's finished...
A Community in Action
The best thing to come out of these controversial redevelopment plans is that it's brought together many local people from the community and reminded us that by working together we can exercise true democracy and direct the future of the town in the interests of those who live here.
It's heartening to see such effective collaboration between the Bridport Town Council, the Chamber of Trade, the Environmental Group, the CPRE, the artistic community and hundreds of local people who together make up the vibrant Bridport community.
For a long time it felt like Bridport had managed to stay under the radar and remain safe from the drastic redevelopment projects that have done so much damage to so many towns across the country. But in recent years a number of demolitions and developments took place that made it quite clear that important decisions about Bridport were been taken by people with no interest or understanding of the unique character of our town.
The problem seemed to be that planning decisions for Bridport are made by the Planning Committee of the West Dorset District Council, which is based in Dorchester. While Dorchester is a beautiful country town, it is markedly different from Bridport, both in terms of it's community and the economics that sustain it.
Hopefully by now it's becoming obvious to the WDDC that we need to allow Bridport's elected Council to decide on how we develop our town in the future, and in fact this St Michael's controversy has revealed that we have a vast resource of intelligent and motivated people who are very capable of making these decisions.
I'd go so far as to say that the way in which Bridport people have come together over this issue is one of the greatest example I've ever seen of true democracy in action. It's actually inspiring to attend a meeting where councillors and local people are working together to resolve these issues in the interests of the town. Local people no longer simply expect our councillors to do everything, but we are all taking responsibility for what we can do to help. This has led to a growing respect for local Councillors such as Dave Rickard, Charles Wilde and Ross Kayes, who are so obviously working with us for the greater good of the town.
