There is a long and unbroken tradition in our country of celebrating Royal jubilees, weddings, coronations and special birthdays with the lighting of beacons. The last major beacon lighting celebration was on Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee on 4th June 2012 and the village came out in force to have a wonderful family day at the Sports Ground.

There will be a further opportunity to celebrate on Thursday 21st April, when beacons will be lit throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories to celebrate The Queen;s 90th birthday and Bere Regis will be part of that celebration, with our beacon being lit in line with the other 255 local communities and organisations around the country.

The official Guide can be found by clicking Queen’s 90th birthday beacons. Watch the Facebook page and notice boards for more information about this event.

Parking on West Street has been a growing problem for some time now. The Parish Council has discussed this with parishioners at the June and July meeting and members of the Parish Council have met with officers from Dorset County Council to try to find some solutions. It was originally suggested that the problem of larger vehicles getting through could be resolved by moving the bus stops. This was discussed and generally agreed that it would not work. We now have another suggestion that the installation of single yellow lines at certain points along the road may be the answer. This will be discussed at the Parish Council meeting on Thursday 13th August. To read the full suggestion please click “Letter ” and for the map click “Map“. Everyone is welcome to attend and put their views forward.

Up to 30 young people from our village benefit from being a member of “Banter”, socialising and having fun on Friday evenings.

Two years ago Banter was created to provide a venue and an opportunity for some of our youngsters to get together in a relaxed atmosphere. With 35 members on the books it has proved popular and is clearly meeting a need amongst our 11 to 18 year olds.

Its success is entirely down to the enthusiasm, hard work and commitment of the adult team behind it. Sadly, with a number of people having to give it up, that team is at crisis point and, unless more helpers are recruited in the next few weeks, Banter will be forced to close permanently.

Members, please note that it is already closing for the next 2 or 3 weeks because the adult rota cannot be filled.

To enable a 1 in 6 week rota Banter needs to share out the supervision to a team of about 20 adults. 7 or 8 of the present team are very happy to continue if more adults volunteer to share the work. New committee members will need to be appointed too, to bring fresh thinking and enthusiasm.

Thirty or more of our young people really need Banter to continue.

This is the challenge: are there 10 or 12 adults out there who will sign up to a one in six week rota, and perhaps give a little more time as a committee member too? The deadline is Sunday 10th May when the Banter Committee will meet to make a final decision to close or to continue.

PLEASE VOLUNTEER. IT’S ONLY 3 HOURS EVERY 6 WEEKS.

To volunteer, or for more information, contact Hannah Mills on hannahlouisemills30@gmail.com 07865 083896, or Kate Morris, 13 Stanbarrow Close BH20 7BE, 01929 472787 or 07881 823139, kate.morris@ymail.com

VACANCY FOR A PARISH COUNCILLOR

If you live or work in the parish, are over 18 years old and would like to make a difference to your community, then why not think about becoming a Parish Councillor.

We meet once a month at the Drax Hall on the second Thursday, commencing 7pm.

For further details and to submit your name for consideration, please contact the Clerk, Mrs Amanda Crocker on 01929 472327 or by e-mail: clerk@bereregisparishcouncil.gov.uk

Souls Moor is designated Common Land although there are no commoners and no-one with common rights. However, because of the designation, the land should be open and accessible to the public. If some of the land were to be used for something such as the access road to the new school, it must be replaced.

Everyone affected will by now have received a letter setting out the proposal to de-register part of Souls Moor for the road and register an area of land to the north of the Bere Stream as Common Land in its place.

The official application has now been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate and is available for viewing at Rye Hill Farm, Rye Hill, Bere Regis from Monday to Saturday between the hours of 9am to 5pm. Please telephone 01929 472327 to arrange an appointment.

The documents are also available for viewing online by following the link:

Application to Deregister and Exchange Common Land

Continuing our commemorations of WWI, there will be a talk on the Battle of Coronel on 1st November 2014, at the Drax Hall, commencing 7pm.

The battle took place 100 years ago to the day. Petty Officer William Cox, the first local man to die in the war, was killed seven thousand miles away off the coast of Chile. Rod Arnold of the Western Front Association has made a special study of the Royal Navy in WWI and will explain how and why PO Cox, along with hundreds of his shipmates came to die so far from home.

Tickets are £2.50 each – under 16s go free – and can be obtained from Amanda Crocker at Rye Hill Farm 01929 472327 or clerk@bereregisparishcouncil.gov.uk