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Heart FM Radio In Bournemouth To Close

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The Heart FM radio station in Bournemouth is to close, said its owners Global Radio.

The decision follows the telecommunications regulator, Ofcom’s, ruling in April this year to allow commercial radio operators to co-locate stations to serve larger areas and operate in an increasingly competitive sector.

A spokesman for Global Radio, said:  “Ofcom’s decision allows us to work in an extremely competitive commercial radio market and to compete with the BBC for audience share.  With the closure of Heart FM Bournemouth we are creating a new station, Heart South Coast, based in Fareham, to serve Hampshire and Dorset.”

The spokesman said that there would be some job losses, mostly contract freelances, but could not quantify them.  However Global Radio will be investing £7 million in the restructure of their stations from the current 33 across the country to 15 locations.

Listeners said that they would miss the local feel of the radio station.  Dot and Andy Tyler said:  “We listen to Heart FM in the mornings and Andy listens to it when working as a driver in the Bournemouth.  The closure will be a blow to Bournemouth people who listen to it for local news and traffic updates.”

John Efstathiou, an English language student from Greece, said:  “I will miss news about Bournemouth.  I am new to Bournemouth and listen to local radio to get to know the town and what is going on.”

Global Radio are, however, promising that their future programming at Heart South East will be better with increased local news and breakfast and drive-time segments.

The new station, based in Fareham, is due to open in 2011.

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Beach looks to build on success of Volleyball Cup

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Bournemouth Borough Council is hoping last weekend’s National Student Volleyball Cup will help to continue to increase sports participation on Boscombe beach front.

National Student Volleyball Beach Cup at Boscombe

National Student Volleyball Beach Cup at Boscombe

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Victorian Swanage celebrates 125 years of steam

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Swanage's Victorian station

Swanage station was awash with lace bonnets, frock coats and pocket watches today, as enthusiasts celebrated 125 years since the first steam train puffed into town.

Excited schoolchildren in Victorian costume, accompanied by music from a pair of original street organs, boarded a special train at 11.30, recreating the town’s very first service a century-and-a-quarter ago today.

The event is the centrepiece of a five-day ‘Victorian Swanage’ festival, celebrating the town’s heyday as one of Britain’s most fashionable seaside resorts more than a century ago.

Martin Payne, Swanage Railway’s commercial manager, said the railway had been a vital part of Swanage’s history: “The area was totally changed by the coming of the railway, before that Swanage was a tiny fishing and quarrying village.”

St Mark's First School reception class dressed up for the event

The reception class from St Mark’s First School were thrilled to be so close to working steam trains. Phoenix, 5, said: “I like the old trains, sometimes they have different coloured steam.” Cayla, 4½, liked ‘watching them moving their wheels’.

Further down the platform, Weymouth-based transport historian Brian Jackson was signing copies of his new book ‘Swanage – 125 years of railways’. “It’s just been published today, the culmination of years of research”, he said.

The railway’s future remains uncertain, however. It needs to raise a mammoth £3 million by a July 30th deadline to fund re-signalling work that would allow regular passenger services from the London-Weymouth mainline for the first time since 1972.

Jane and Norman Dicker came from Chichester with their 1888 Austrian reed organ.

Martin Payne was hopeful the target could be reached in time: “It’s got to happen, there are a lot of positive signs. Three millions pounds sounds like a lot of money, but it’s nothing compared to the benefit it brings. We estimate the railway already brings £7 million a year to the area, but that would be dwarfed if we had services from the mainline.

“We’re not just a museum, we’re providing a service to the community. We’re doing what the railway was originally designed to do – bring people down to the beach!”

Victorian Swanage continues until Sunday 23rd May.

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Bournemouth stays blue – but the nation holds its breath

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Tory candidates took decisive wins in Bournemouth last week, but five days later the colour of the next government remains a mystery after the election delivered the first hung parliament for thirty-six years.

The Conservatives fought off Lib Dem challengers to hold on to both of Bournemouth’s Westminster seats in with increased majorities, but nationally the party failed to achieve the breakthrough many were expecting.

In Bournemouth East, Tobias Ellwood increased his majority to over 7000 ahead of Lib Dem Lisa Northover.

He said: “I’m delighted, it’s a real honour to be continuing to represent Bournemouth East.  I’ve got an increased majority and I think that reflects the positive campaign we’ve conducted here. But also the message that many people in Bournemouth as well as across the country want to see a change of government and Gordon Brown out of Number 10.”

Even as he celebrated his success, he warned about the indecision of a hung parliament: “I do hope we see some decisive decisions on which way we’re going to go. A hung parliament is dangerous territory; anyone looking at the markets will see things are very volatile. We need leadership, we need direction, we need a change of office in Number 10.”

However, he has since made a statement on his website urging his party to: “put aside party politics and recognise the urgency of providing strong leadership and a clear direction for Britain in order to navigate out of these difficult economic and political waters”.

Northover, meanwhile, used her Twitter account to encourage people to attend an electoral reform rally in Bournemouth on Saturday.

Bournemouth West got its first new MP for twenty-seven years, as Conor Burns received over 5000 votes more than Lib Dem Alasdair Murray.

Speaking moments after his victory was announced, he said: “I’m really looking forward to starting work for the people of Bournemouth West, delivering on the promise I gave them that I would be a hardworking, community-focussed, energetic politician who would take their concerns to Westminster and be a community champion for our area.

“I’m delighted in the trust they have put in me, and I can’t wait to start work tomorrow morning on their behalf.”

The seat was previously held by scandal-hit Sir John Butterfill, who stood down for this election. He had previously been embroiled in controversial expenses claims relating to his Surrey mansion, and was one of four MPs caught in the Dispatches lobbying sting in March.

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Giant Killer Claims Bournemouth tennis crown

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A French tennis player, who counts the great Roger Federer amongst his past victims, emerged victorious at the International Tennis Federation tournament in Bournemouth.

Eric Prodon battled past the best that Britain and Europe had to offer during the F5 Futures tournament at the West Hants Tennis club. The 28-year-old claimed the crown thanks to a 7-6, 6-1 victory over Russia’s Mikhail Vasiliev in the final on Saturday.

It was a welcome victory for Prodon, who in the past has conquered ATP tour players such as Federer, Guillermo Coria and Karol Beck. The Frenchman takes away a cheque for $10,000, and gains valuable ranking points as he looks to improve on his current rank of 302 in the world.

West Hants Tennis Club

West Hants Tennis Club

There was less to cheer for the British men however, with only Alexander Slabinsky and Marcus Willis of the home grown talent getting as far as the quarter-final stage.

The success story of the tournament from a British perspective was Lisa Whybourn who made excellent progress during the women’s competition. The 19-year-old reached her first ever professional singles final, but was eventually beaten by Romana Tabakova of Slovakia.

It was a tremendous showing from the young Brit as she defeated a variety of opponents, including the tournament’s Polish No.1 seed Patrycja Sanduska, on route to the final. She eventually succumbed to qualifier Tabakova in the final, going down 6-1, 6-7, 7-6.

The Futures tournament in Bournemouth was part of a series of events which sees the players compete in Edinburgh this week.

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Nick Clegg pledges to trim fat from NHS

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Nick Clegg today outlined his plans to reduce the bureaucracy of the NHS and to tackle the £167 Billion deficit, to rounds of applause from the Royal College of Nursing.

Mr Clegg said “there was no bag of gold” waiting for them and they were going to have to do better with the same money they have now.

He marked out issues such as the “Grandiose ICT project running years late and way over budget”.

“GP and consultant contracts poorly negotiated … and the endless botched re-organisation of the NHS with endless quangos” said Mr Clegg, were the causes of inefficiency.

Mr Clegg pointed out that it would take “one person, 491 years to process” the administration work of the NHS, at a cost of £1 Billion a year. That is enough to pay 25,000 Nurses in wages and points to the sad situation that the NHS has “more managers and clerks than beds”.

The biggest applause of the day however came from a question raised by a nurse, who asked Mr Clegg if he was planning to give nurses the power to sack their Chief Executives, like he had promised constituents could do to an ill performing MP. The sentiment in the room was that they knew more about health and welfare of patients than the Chief Executives.

Clegg didn’t want to go this far but was keen to stress that he wanted to see more “John Lewis style” trusts where the people involved in the service would be more in control. However with a record deficit of £167 Billion, and many estimates saying we need cuts of £40 billion a year, it may be that more radical steps are needed.

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Election fever heats up in Purbeck

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Ed Miliband and Jim Knight on the campaign trail in Swanage

Leading figures from the major parties have paid visits to both of Purbeck’s constituencies to bolster local candidates ahead of the election on May 6th.

Government minister Ed Miliband dropped in to Swanage this afternoon to field questions on climate change and proposed wind turbines at East Stoke alongside South Dorset Labour candidate Jim Knight.

The energy and climate secretary took advantage of the perfect spring weather to relax with an ice cream on the seafront after a day on the campaign trail that also took in controversial plans for a palm oil power plant and major offshore wind development near Portland.

Mr Miliband told a Daily Echo reporter: “We need onshore and offshore renewables, we need nuclear power and we need clean coal, because the challenge of climate change is massive and we cannot reject any of the alternatives.”

Former Deputy PM John Prescott also added his weight to Labour’s bid for South Dorset when he toured Weymouth on Monday.

The seat is a key target for the Conservatives, who need to make major gains in the South West to stand any chance of a majority in Westminster. Knight, Dorset’s sole Labour MP, won a slim majority of 1800 in the 2005 election, but faces a tough fight to retain his seat against Tory contender Richard Drax.

Meanwhile, Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne flanked Annette Brooke during campaigning in Wareham yesterday. The pair focussed on alternatives to the town’s pedestrian rail crossing, slated as one of the riskiest in the country.

Brooke will be hoping to ride the tide of ‘Cleggmania’ sweeping Britain following last week’s historic leaders’ debate to see off the Conservative challenger Nick King in her Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency.

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