Teenage football coach to carry Olympic Flame

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Tom Crocker

The countdown to London 2012 is well and truly under way with only 158 days to go until the opening ceremony on July 27^th and teenage football coach Andy Howe from Broadstone will be counting down the days more than most.

Photo courtesy of Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/waldopepper/5980780499/

Subject to the formality of security checks, Andy, 17, will take his place in the Olympic Torch Relay, after being publicly nominated in the ‘Moment to Shine’ campaign to carry the Olympic Flame on part of its trip around the UK.

Speaking about finding out the news he said: “I got an invitation and then an email confirmation. I didn’t really believe it and it didn’t really sink in.”

Nephew of former AFC Bournemouth player and manager Eddie Howe, Andy is already showing signs of following in his uncle’s footsteps. His nomination was for his dedication to sport including taking part in a coaching academy, teaching children who haven’t got good coaches better footballing techniques, and coaching for AFC Bournemouth’s youth teams.

He added: “I have to carry the flame for 200-300 yards which is not far but I still get to do it.”

The 70 day journey starts on May 19^th when the Flame begins in Land’s End, Cornwall, after arriving from its home in Greece, culminating at the Olympic Stadium in London on opening night.

After travelling through cities such as Cardiff, Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh and Liverpool, Bournemouth hosts the honour on July 14^th, by which time Olympic fever will have swept the nation.

The 8,000 circles on the Olympic torch will be represented by 8,000 Torchbearers and Andy is one of the representatives for the Bournemouth leg of the route.

The course was carefully planned out to allow as many people as possible to witness the event, with 95% of the UK population within an hour of at least one of the venues.

After passing through Bournemouth, Boscombe and Christchurch, the Olympic Flame travels through Hampshire in preparation for the beginning of day 58 of the journey in Southampton.

Bournemouth school students form own company

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Lee Williams

Team Ignite

A group of entrepreneurial Bournemouth school students are breaking into the world of business with a brand new product.

The 18 young adults from Talbot Heath, Portchester, Bishop of Winchester and Parkstone Grammar schools have formed their own company called Team Ignite with the help of UK charity Young Enterprise. They have developed a product called ‘Mymat’.

Young Enterprise sponsor several similar companies across the UK. They provide each fledgling company with an advisor from the local business community. In the case of Team Ignite this is 36-year-old Clare Belmont from Boscombe who is a client service manager with J P Morgan.

Clare said: “There are 18 young people in the company all of whom have an active role in running it. It’s a proper company in all senses and is registered with Companies House.”

The ‘Mymat’ product is a clear plastic place mat which can hold and display pictures. It will be made from wipe-clean perspex and will also come with water-soluble pens and simple learning activities like dot-to-dot and letter tracing.

“It’s a very versatile product,” said Clare. “It can be pitched to restaurants for use as a place mat with slide-in menus. A local special-needs school has also expressed an interest in it as a learning tool.”

Team Ignite raise their own funds and recently participated in a Dragon’s Den style event at Barclay’s House in Poole.

At the event similar groups from all over Dorset pitched their products to a panel of local entrepreneurs and business people. Team Ignite were one of the companies who won investment from the ‘Dragons’.

The team are taking part in a competition with other Young Enterprise sponsored companies throughout the UK. The Dorset heats of the competition will take place in March and from there they will go to regional and national heats.

In the meantime Team Ignite are looking for a local company to produce a prototype ‘Mymat’ which they can then begin to market.

Navitus Bay Wind Farm fuels doubts and concerns

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Monty Walton

A planned Wind Farm to be built off the coast of Bournemouth and Poole is receiving criticism from people in affected areas.

Dorset Against Rural Turbines has argued that the economic impact would be more damaging than the environmental one, saying ‘Rather than pouring millions of your money into wind energy for no effect we could pay for or subsidise lagging, greater roof and wall insulation, low energy bulbs and solar water heating.’

‘These simple measures would add less than 10% of the cost of building an average new house.’

The Navitus Bay Wind Farm is expected to include up to 300 turbines covering a 200km wide area about 10 miles away from the Boroughs of Bournemouth and Poole, the Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee was told in Bournemouth last Monday.

One of the growing local concerns is the damage the Farm will cause to the famous views of the popular coastal location.

Campaigners against the project claim that it would be a ‘blot on the horizon’ and badly impact upon the tourism industry in the area.

Stephen Thorne, head of Planning and Regeneration, Borough of Poole has said, ‘the physical impact of the Wind Park on the tourist industry is a key issue which will need to be more fully assessed.’

The height of the turbines and the effect they will have on the coastal scenery is also being scrutinised.

Eneco, the Dutch energy company behind the project, claims in its scoping report that the height of the turbines will not exceed 205 meters, and that the maximum rotor diameter will be around 176 meters.

There will be public exhibitions held across Dorset which will aim to provide more information about the project and its proposals before the consultation period in May.

Now in the pre-application process, the Wind Farm is scheduled for completion in 2019.

Blanket 20 mph speed limits can’t work says Councillor

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Tom Simpson

Winton’s blanket 20 miles-per-hour speed limit is unworkable, a Bournemouth Councillor has said.

Ward Councillor Theo Stratton opposed the introduction of the limit in December last year, calling the measure “something that isn’t wanted or needed.”

Speaking out today, Councillor Stratton said that people in his ward had come to him asking why the council was imposing a limit which was not needed, would be costly in terms of new signs and traffic calming measures and which, in any event, they could not enforce.

Councillor Stratton said: “The streets in the area are too narrow for speed cameras, and the police don’t have time to enforce the limit across the whole area.”

Speaking about the findings of a Sustrans survey, in which 70% of the British public said they would cycle in urban areas if blanket 20 mph limits were introduced, Councillor Stratton said: “I support 20 mph limits around schools and hospitals, but I’m afraid these blanket bans are an absolutely unrealistic proposal.”

Jason Falconer, who works as a ‘Bike It’ officer for Sustrans, encouraging children to cycle to and from school safely, disagreed with Councillor Stratton. He said that the narrowness of the streets in the Councillor’s ward meant that they needed a lower speed limit for the safety of cyclists and pedestrians.

Mr Falconer said evidence showed that the number of children killed or injured in 20 mph zones was substantially lower than in 30 mph zones and that enforcement was not the only factor.

He said: “The psychological effect alone would be very important. People in 30 mph zones tend to exceed the limit by around 5 mph, even if they were to do the same in a 20 mph zone, the average speed would still be substantially lowered.”

Plans to ban parents from taking their children out of school will be ‘fraught with difficulty’

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Jonathan Low

A measure to ban parents from taking their children out of school during term time will be ‘fraught with difficulty,’ says one Bournemouth Councillor.

Councillor Barry Goldbart, Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services at Bournemouth Borough Council said that flexibility would be needed if such plans were to be introduced.

‘In principle I would rather that parents didn’t take their children out of school in odd times, but it does rather depend on how long they take them out for.

‘I think you would need a bit of flexibility.

‘It [a ban] is going to be very hard to control. Nationally there must be a big problem, but I am not aware it is down here in Bournemouth.’

One of the reasons why families go away in term time is because holidays are much cheaper.

And according to Cllr Goldbart, it is the travel companies who lie at the heart of the issue.

‘The real problem comes down to the holiday firms who take advantage of the parents – that’s what the government should be looking more closely at.

‘They [holiday firms] effectively cause the problem.’

Cllr Goldbart also said that a possible solution would be for the government to ‘name and shame travel companies and airlines.’

This is a view enforced by Louise Isaacs, a local education specialist.

‘It’s a difficult balancing act for schools,’ says Ms Isaacs, who works with schools in the Bournemouth area.

‘Some parents can’t afford to take their children away during the school holidays.

‘Holiday firms can increase their prices by 50% – the problem lies at their feet.

‘If there were fairer holiday prices, this wouldn’t be an issue – the prices are just astronomical.

‘Most secondary heads don’t support Michael Gove as they fear the country is becoming too much of a “nanny state”’.

A headmaster of a local independent school says parents at his school are urged not to remove their children during the term.

Alastair Reid, headmaster of Ballard School in New Milton, said: ‘We actively discourage holidays in term time and parents who wish to take their children out of school are required to complete a form to formalise their request and explain their decision.

‘We work in partnership with parents to ensure that any work missed is then caught up and this might mean staying on late at school or coming in over a weekend.

There are, thus, consequences for any such absence.’

A local teacher though, who asked not to be named, said the parents were to blame for the problem.

‘Ultimately it’s the parents’ responsibility.

‘Education should come first and not be interrupted, unless it’s for a very good reason.

‘I would support a ban, but I think it would be difficult to enforce.

‘It’s always going to be more expensive [to go on holiday] at peak times, that’s the same for everyone, so it’s not the fault of holiday companies.’

Nearly double the price

A Thomson holiday to Spain is nearly double the price during the Easter holiday, as opposed to just two weeks before.

It costs £1360 for a family of four to go to the Costa Blanca between the 19^th and 26^th April.

But just two weeks later, in the first week of the Easter holidays, the exact same holiday costs £2556 – an increase of £1196.

Boscombe arts centre occupied after demolition plans let slip

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Lee Williams

Occupy protestor inside the listed part of the building

A protest group has moved into a Boscombe arts centre after a Bournemouth councillor said the building would be ‘rubble’ in a few weeks.

The Occupy Boscombe protestors moved in to the Boscombe Centre for Community Arts (BCCA) late last night after Councillor Chris Wakefield let slip that it would soon be demolished.

Cllr Wakefield’s statement came at the meeting for the future development of Boscombe held at King’s Park School in Boscombe on Saturday.

One of those who heard Cllr Wakefield’s statement was an interior decorator from Boscombe, 39-year-old Vivien Hoffman.

She said: “I said to him that we’d love to see the BCCA reinstated and he said, ‘In a few weeks that will be rubble.’ He was really triumphant about it.”

The news soon appeared on the Facebook page of BCCA Friends, a local charity which is campaigning to have the centre reinstated. From there an Occupy Boscombe member spotted it and by Sunday night several members were secretly moving in.

Occupy Boscombe member Bob Earthwise said: “We’re happy to save the building for the community. It’s our arts centre. For the council to go into property speculation is outrageous with what belongs to all of us.”

Governors of the BCCA Friends charity, Katherine Edgar and Lind Ni’man were also at the site this morning. Linda Ni’man said: “This is the most deprived community in the whole South West of England. The council is supposed to be regenerating this area. How does pulling down a community arts centre to build flats help with that?”

In response to the claims Cllr Wakefield said: “What I said was taken out of context. I said an application will be submitted in the not too distant future. If that application goes through the site will be demolished as a consequence.”

The centre was built in 1878 as the ‘Boscombe British School’. In 1963 the school became the Bournemouth Children’s Theatre.

The building was closed in September 2007 and Bournemouth Borough Council began plans to demolish it. Since then the plans have faced constant protest from residents of Boscombe and the BCCA Friends charity. Part of the building was given a grade II listing by English Heritage in July 2008.

Katherine Edgar and Linda Ni'man outside the BCCA

Local stores face crisis

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Lauren Murray

Shops in Westbourne are facing an up-hill struggle in line with national statistics, released by the British Retail Consortium this morning.

With more shops closing than opening, according to BRC, shop owners are having to work harder to keep their stores open. They face competition from large out-of-town retail parks that entice the consumer with free parking and cheaper online websites.

Fab Frocks of Westbourne, Seymour Road, is downsizing to just one half of its current size as the lease is due to expire-all around ‘to let’ signs stretch as far as the eye can see.

Nicky Hunter, owner of Les Enfants on the corner of the old arcade in Westbourne said that this year the shop had to go ‘into sale’ early-nearly two weeks before Christmas, whereas normally they would start the sales in January.

“The sale is still ongoing as we have so much stock to shift,” she said. “Walk-in customers are simply not here. Whereas during Christmas we should’ve been very busy every shopkeeper [in the arcade] went, ‘Where is everybody?’”

“Business rates have gone up and up and up. We have had to branch out online in order to compete. We’ve set up a Facebook shop which has 5000 followers. We’ve yet to see how it performs but the costs are negligible compared with setting up a website and we’re run off our feet with online orders.”

The store has been open for twenty years but the most rapid decline in sales has been within the last year. However, her sister shop, second-hand store Arthur and Martha’s has gone ‘from strength to strength’, which corresponds to figures provided that charity shops and pawn brokers are ‘bucking the trend’, according to the Daily Mail, last Friday.

However, with one in five people having no spare cash after bills, according to a poll carried out by the i newspaper, it seems that consumers don’t have the spare income to justify unnecessary expenditure and these local boutiques may have to continue to struggle.

The shop located next to the arcade.

Bournemouth based group ‘Latin Quarter’ reunite

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Lee Williams

Steve Skaith

A Bournemouth teacher who was lead singer of a famous 80’s band has reformed the group with a concert in Westbourne.

Steve Skaith, a 60-year-old teacher from Southbourne, has reunited the group ‘Latin Quarter’ who are best known for their 1986 top twenty hit ‘Radio Africa’.

The folk rock band played a reunion gig at Centre Stage in Westbourne on Sunday evening. It was the line up’s first concert together since they split in 1998.

Steve, who teaches English at Kaplan International College in Westbourne, said: “It’s been an interesting experience. It’s taken us about a year to get back together. We’ve only been able to meet up once a month but we’ll feel more like a band when we get back on the road.”

Latin Quarter have recorded a new album ‘Ocean Head’, which is released on the 17^thof

Latin Quarter

February. They are also about to embark on a three-week tour of Germany.

The band will also play a gig in London in April when they return from Germany. They hope to follow this up with a UK tour.

Steve plays guitar and is lead vocalist in the band. He has lived and worked in Bournemouth with his wife and son for five years.

In their previous career Latin Quarter released 6 studio albums and 19 singles and sold over half a million albums worldwide. Highlights of their career included performances on Top of the Pops and the Old Grey Whistle Test.

Another highlight was playing in front of more than 50,000 people on the main stage at Glastonbury in 1986.

Over 100 people turned up to watch the reunion concert at Centre Stage.

Kevin Willis, a colleague of Steve’s at Kaplan College, said: “It’s weird to see him in such a different environment but it’s great to see him doing what he loves, and with the original band.”

EU energy enlistment: Bournemouth and Poole to join ranks?

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Monty Walton

People in Poole and Bournemouth may have to prepare to drastically cut carbon emissions if a European environmental programme is signed, reports say.

Poole and Bournemouth borough councils are considering becoming signatories of the European Covenant of Mayors Programme, after a proposition from the Energy Saving Trust was made to the environmental overview and scrutiny committee in Poole last week.

The Covenant of Mayors programme is a European wide co-operative movement aimed at local and regional authorities, enabling them to voluntarily commit to increasing energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy in their area.

Signatories of the scheme pledge to make a formal commitment to the EU’s ‘202020’ targets – 20% improvement in energy , 20% contribution from renewable energy, and 20% reductions in CO2 emissions by 2020, if they are to remain on the programme.

Poole Council’s Carbon Reduction manager, Paul Cooling, believes that signing up to the programme would not only be beneficial for the council, but for the wider community as a whole.

‘The appeal of the Covenant of Mayors is not just that it deals with the Council’s emissions from its operations and estate but also includes Borough-wide emissions as well,’ he said.

‘The Council performed well in the assessment and are in a strong position to sign up to and benefit from the Covenant of Mayors Programme.’

He went on to say, however, that, ‘The key factor to the success of this venture is the continued commitment of Councillors, Directors and staff to the Council’s Carbon Reduction objectives.’

Ben Frier, from the Energy Savings Trust, said: ‘The major risk to the borough is if it fails to achieve the required standard and is therefore expelled from the covenant.’

The final decision on the matter has yet to be made, and will take place at the next Environmental committee meeting in Poole on Thursday, 8th March.

With a total of 2300 signatories, and firm support from various local authorities abroad, the scheme is continuing to gain widespread popularity across the EU and beyond.

Council To Decide On CCTV In Taxis

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Peter Hodges

CCTV cameras may be fitted into the back of Bournemouth taxis if given the go-ahead at a Licensing Board meeting on Thursday.

It’s claimed the cameras would help provide protection for both the drivers and the passengers.

The council says the cameras could help stop assaults, theft and non-payment by passengers but also protect passengers from any inappropriate actions by drivers.

The council hopes the cameras will be installed into all 600 taxis in Bournemouth.

Ms Anita Whant, of the Taxi Trade Association, said: “Rather than have the driver’s word against the passengers, this system will be able to clear up problems that they experience.”

The outright purchase of a single camera CCTV unit is approximately £560 plus VAT. However, the purchase of up to 500 of the cameras could cost over £225,000.

The cameras begin recording sound and picture when the ignition is switched on and continue to record for 15 minutes after the engine has stopped running.

One type of camera that can be used is a picture-only system. However picture-only systems are useful for recording the identities of passengers but hearing what is being said or how an incident starts can tell the whole story.

The preferred solution is a CygCam unit which not only takes fast snap shot images but also takes continuous audio.

CCTV in cabs has been a constant source of news with some cab drivers putting the images on YouTube.

One Mail Online reported that Oxford Council had ‘lumbered tax payers’ with a £260,000 bill to pay for cameras and their installation.

It is not yet clear whether tax payers will be expected to foot the bill for the cameras in Bournemouth. It will be decided at the meeting on Thursday.

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