Chairman’s Note
Welcome to this the Summer 2023 edition of the View from Poole and I hope you had a wonderful coronation weekend and didn’t get too wet.
Congratulations to Jan Marsh for her work on the unveiling of the Blue Plaque to Louie Dingwall at Sandbanks which is now on display for everyone to see and for fronting an
excellent discussion with BBC Solent/Dorchester when interviewed about the plaque.
Meanwhile within Poole the Society continues to “punch above our weight”. We have now secured £42,000 from BCP for the restoration of the Shore Road heritage lights and hope that this summer the work will finally commence. We also plan to continue to put up more blue plaques; aim to pursue the stabilization of the Powder House at Baiter through further grants and continue to support the East Dorset Architectural Heritage Week by manning the opening of the Guildhall in September. We also aim to liaise with Future Places in the creation of design guidelines for developments along the harbour shoreline from Sterte to the Lifeboat Museum.
In addition to our general activities, we are now up and running with the organisation of the Beating of the Sea Bounds 2024. Please put a date in your diary of 7th July 2024. Our organising committee, which brings together BCP Cllrs and the Mayor, PHC, PQF, Poole Maritime Trust, Pirates of Poole and Poole Rotary, are now committed to the event.
Funding will however be a major issue with costs likely to be up to £30,000 but without any financial support from BCP. We will therefore need significant commercial sponsorship, not an easy task but one I believe Poole based companies will embrace in order to make the event a success.
We will however have to move the location of our meeting from September due to reorganisation of the RBL Hall in North Road. From September we will be holding our meeting in the Oakdale Hall (Con Club) in Darbys Lane, BH15 3EU, please do make note of the change!
Despite the challenges we therefore go deep into this year with drive and confidence that we both have a voice, we have ideas and projects and the drive to make a difference.
Many thanks for your support to date and I hope everyone has a warm and enjoyable summer.
Mike Pearce
Chairman
[email protected]
August 2023