23 November 2022 - Annual Charity Coffee at The Springhead
20 November 2022 - PROPOSED TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF PLAISTERS LANE ON DEC 9TH
Sent: 18 November 2022 14:42
To: Cllr. Tony Ferrari <
Cc:
Subject: PROPOSED TEMPORARY ROAD CLOSURE, PLAISTERS LANE, WEYMOUTH
16 November 2022 - Ten Questions
15 November 2022 - Mission Hall Newsletter 2: feedback evening planned
The Mission Hall Committee were blown away by the number and quality of the replies we received in response to our earlier Newsletter and Survey. The Mission Hall is clearly important to you all, so we will shortly be asking the Church for a Lease extension. You have also been thinking carefully and positively about how the Hall can be improved. Thank you all so much. Thank you also to those of you who have said you will be prepared to help us with our work of running the Mission Hall, either on the Committee or with fund-raising. We will hope to find a way of getting people involved in the next few months, starting with a Volunteers’ Meeting in January (perhaps 18th).
These are interesting and worrying times. Early next year our electricity prices will go up by a large multiple, and without taking action we calculate we would have to put the Hall Hire rates up by about 80%. As a result, we are approaching Solar Panel installers to get prices for solar panelling to be fitted on as much of the south-facing roof as possible. Our calculations are that this will allow us to keep the rise in Hall Hire rates to around 25% - still significant but we believe our Hall will still be competitive compared with other halls locally.
Before the Solar Panels are fitted, however, we have contracted a firm to fit acoustic panelling to our ceiling - this should happen early in the New Year. As many of you have pointed out, the Hall’s acoustics are very bad, making communications difficult when there are numbers of people in the Hall. The acoustics are measured in what is called Reverberation Time, and these acoustic panels will reduce the Reverberation Time from around 3 seconds to about 1 second, which is ideal for a Hall of this type.
We are in the very fortunate position, significantly as a result of a recent bequest by a Rev William Kelly, to have money in the bank to pay for these improvements, but further fund raising will be important if we are to tackle other ideas that you have raised. We’re grateful to one villager for asking us to focus on “events that raise funds” rather than ”fund-raising events”, so we will try to make sure that FUN comes before FUNDS in our priorities.
I hope you can see we are already working busily on your behalves, and your responses to the previous Newsletter will give us lots to think about. To take this all forwards, we are planning
A Feedback Evening at the Mission Hall on Thursday 8th December starting 7.30 p.m. with mulled wine and refreshments |
so that we can talk through the results of our Survey, and jointly discuss the way forward. We hope to see as many as possible of you there, so that the energy and enthusiasm you have all shown does not go to waste.
See you there!
14 November 2022 - Millenium Walk hedgerow planting
11 November 2022 - Remembrance Service
7 November 2022 - Derek Dodge
Derek Thomas Charles Dodge was born on the 2nd of January, 1930, during the war years. He was an only child, and his parents were proud of him. At a very young age, he was taken to see an air display, just outside Weymouth, and from that moment, he had no doubts about what he would be. He would fly aeroplanes and go to Biggin Hill. His parents were not very happy with this, taking into account the times in which they were living. However, when he was older, Derek was proving to be a very clever young man. He attended Weymouth Grammar School, became Head Boy, and He was called up to National Service, when he completed his training as a Fighter Pilot, and was posted in 41 Squadron at Biggin Hill, fulfilling his ambition. On completing National Service, he joined BOAC as it was then called, in 1953. He flew a variety of planes, - Argonauts, Stratocruisers, 707s, 747s - and was promoted from 1st Officer to Captain in 1970. Derek retired in 1981 as Route Training Captain. He bought himself a lovely sailing vessel, called Red Barrel, because he had always loved sailing. His wife Pat was glad, because it made him happy, and she enjoyed it too. He took his Yachtmaster's Course and obtained his Certificate. Not long afterwards, having joined the Royal Dorset Yacht Club, he became the Commodore, which launched him into a whole new world of meetings, functions and of course sailing events. Both he and Pat were happy with this very pleasant social life. The offers didn't stop there. He became Public Relations Officer for Weymouth RNLI and enjoyed this very much too - it opened up another aspect of sailing and meeting more people as well. In 1988 He stood for County Councillor for his area, was voted for and from 1988/1992, having won his seat became even more busy with his retirement. Not content with all this activity, he then joined the Board of Visitors at Verne Prison, became Governor of St. Andrews School, and joined the CPRE (Council for the Protection of Rural England) and his wife Pat became secretary, so both of them were involved and enjoyed their membership. Derek's life was never boring - it was full of happenings, interests and activity. He loved his life and made it full and exciting. Only old age and a stroke could put an end to a man of such character and ability. On 31st October 2022 his life ended, but he will be remembered by all who knew him. |