Also available as a PDF to print here.

The Parish Council met on Thursday 8^th January 2026 in the Village Hall. One member of the public was present. Members of the press and public are welcome and there is a period for public participation at the start. If you are unable to attend but wish to submit a comment or question, please contact the Clerk or any member of the Parish Council.

Bus Services
The latest information from Vikki Slade MP is that Dorset Council were intending to extend the CR (socially necessary) routes that include the service which calls at Bere Regis to include a Saturday during 2026. It is understood that they had the funding but there was a formal process that needed to be followed to take the decision through the Council. The intention was that this would come into effect during the next financial year. It is stressed that this was an intent do things and may have substantially changed. Updates will be passed on as soon as they are received.

In the meantime, Dorset Community Transport run a service on Tuesday, leaving the Royal Oak at 10am to Poole and returning at about 1pm and to Blandford on Thursdays, leaving at 9.30am and returning at 1245pm. You must register to use this service – telephone number 01258 287980 – and bus passes are accepted.

Neighbourhood Plan Review Consultation
The consultation is now underway and runs from the 5^th January and run until the 22^nd February 2026. A village meeting will then be held at the end of February/beginning of March to cover both the Neighbourhood Plan review and the future of the play park.

The Review document and supporting evidence is available here or, if you would like a hard copy, please contact the Clerk.

Play Park
We are extremely grateful to all those who have donated money towards the cost of a new play park. Needless to say, we have a long way to go. It was suggested that, rather than try and build a completely new play park all at once, we should, perhaps, be thinking of purchasing one new piece of equipment at a time. This will be discussed further at the February meeting.

Parking
Complaints continue to be received about non-electric vehicles parking in the EV bays. It is appreciated that parking is limited but we would ask residents to be considerate and not use the electric charging bays. The car park is the responsibility of the Parish Council and we have to pay business rates on it. The small amount of income taken from the EV bays is the only way some of this cost can be offset.

Lengthsman
As many of you know, we are in the very fortunate position in Bere Regis of having a Lengthsman to carry out many of the day to day jobs around the parish and pick up much of the work no longer undertaken by Dorset Council. As part of our due diligence, this role is advertised every few years. If anyone would like to apply for the job, please contact the Clerk for details of the job description.

Parish Councillor Vacancies
There are now three vacancies for councillors on the Parish Council. Bere Regis is a very active Council with a great deal going on. If you would like to be a part of this and represent the community in which you live, please contact the Clerk for further information.

Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held on Thursday 12^th February 2026 commencing 7pm at the Village Hall.. If you wish to have an item added to the agenda for discussion, please contact the Clerk or a member of the Parish Council. A full copy of the minutes is available on the Parish Council website.

Play Park Project – Investing in our Children’s Future

As many of you are aware, Bere Regis Play Park is in need of replacement. The existing play park was installed in 2013 and cost £42,000. Much of this was covered by grants, but the village raised nearly £4,000 through holding various events. All of the original play equipment was bespoke made of wood, which, 13 years on and despite on-going repairs, has slowly rotted and much has had to be removed for safety reasons. It was decided that we need to look at a new play area, but costs have increased considerably since then. So has the variety of equipment available.

To this end, Councillors Kevin Hazell and Sam Bardwell have taken on the task to review the current park and replace it with a new park.

The aim of the new play park will be to foster challenge, adventure, co-operation and communication, building physical and mental confidence for children up to about 12/13 years of age. It will also promote social mixing amongst older age groups within the village i.e. siblings, parents and grandparents.

If we are to upgrade and replace the play park, with one that lasts more than 25 years, we will need to raise approximately £200,000. The Parish Council has set aside £33,000 over the past years to act as match funding.

The Councillors have visited several play parks, consulted with other Parish Councils and engaged with a number of prospective suppliers, (who have all visited the site). We have had initial plans drawn up by a local company who has built a number of parks in our area. These will be available to be viewed on the Parish Council web page soon. It is by no means the finished article, but more an initial idea to demonstrate what may be achieved for our children. This will be the starting point for the children, parents, Bere Regis residents and any other interested parties to contribute ideas, to create the actual play park.

To succeed in getting the play park that Bere Regis children deserve, we will all need to help out in raising the money, be it helping at events, setting up events, offering ideas to raise money or finding sponsors who will contribute to the whole park funding or focus on sponsoring a specific piece of equipment.

We will be setting up a fund-raising committee in the near future – if you are interested please let us know and we will add you to the list for the first meeting.

We as a village have achieved this before and can do it again. Time is of the essence – the quicker we get going, the sooner we will have the park.

Please feel free to contact Cllr Kevin Hazell by email – k.hazell@bereregisparishcouncil.gov.uk – if you have any questions, ways to help or would like to get involved in any way.

To start the process, we will be setting up a Crowd Funding page for donations – this will be made available soon on the Parish Council Facebook page. Please take a moment to look at this site and see what we could have for our youngsters and take a moment to share with as many people as possible, both in our community and wider, to make them aware of what we are trying to achieve and to help raise the funds needed.

Any contribution is both valued and appreciated.

Dorset Council Local Plan – deadline for comments extended to 31 Oct. 2025

As previously publicised, Dorset Council are seeking your views on how Dorset should grow and develop over the next 17 years. Many so-called “opportunity sites” have been identified across the county, with the potential for the building of many thousands of new houses. In Bere Regis, two sites have been identified, which if developed could amount to approximately 200 more houses in the village. One site is to the east of Rye Hill, on land that is currently Rye Hill farm – the development would surround Green Close and potentially 158 houses have been allocated to this area. The other site is the fields between Snow Hill Lane and North Street, and potentially 38 houses have been allocated to this area.

These houses are in addition to the new housing already identified in the current version of our Neighbourhood Plan as above. 200 additional houses would be a roughly 25% increase on the identified total number of dwellings in the Bere Regis parish.

There are no planning applications associated with these opportunity sites – Dorset Council are developing a long-term plan, for the next 17 years as stated above. Planning applications could follow once the plan has been developed. In order that your views are taken into account, it is important that as many people as possible submit their comments. Bere Regis Parish Council cannot tell you what to say but we can give you pointers towards the sort of things that you might wish to comment on. The list below is not exhaustive, and ultimately some of these items may have both negative and positive impact.

Infrastructure, drains (rainwater & sewers)
Infrastructure, electricity
Infrastructure, Internet
Availability of local jobs for 200 more households
Infrastructure, public transport
Potential increase in commuting, impact on local and main roads
Impact on parking and village traffic in already congested areas (eg outside the shop, for which more houses could be beneficial)
Medical facilities, short & longer term
Impact on the school and consequent traffic impact at drop-off / pick-up
Impact on shop, local businesses and pubs
Availability of village facilities, play park, allotments etc
Availability of suitable Village Hall
Loss of, or impact on, “green” environment
Impact on existing residents, loss of privacy
Alternative areas that might be more suitable for development
Visual impact on current environment
Scale of possible development, potential over development
Proximity to protected areas, eg Blackhill SSSI and Wild Woodbury

Click here to open Dorset Council Local Plan consultation site (with maps etc)

Click here to open page for submitting your comments
The link for the Online Survey where you submit your views is at the bottom of this page.