Due to abuse of the email system on virtual-swanage.co.uk, we have been forced to close the free email facility on this website. Please can all the users sign up with an alternative service such as googlemail or hotmail for their email needs.
We are sorry about the short notice of this change but due to the system being used for identity theft, it had to be removed due to a pending investigation and therefore all accounts had to be removed.
Thanks to everybody who has helped to make Live Music Sundays so successful at Bar Se7en (formerly known as the Victoria Club), 1 High Street, Swanage opposite the stone quay.
Every Sunday from 5pm-8pm - admission free - we have Live Music ranging from Boogie Woogie, Blues and Soul to Country, Swing and Rock 'n' Roll. I play keyboards/bass, Bournemouth Fred's on drums and we have a variety of top guests (many professional) on guitar, harmonica and vocals.
All welcome! Spread the word if you can please. Live Music is good for the soul, and for Tourism too! For more information call me on 01929 422338, email s.darrington@btopenworld.com or just come along.
You'll be made welcome and you will enjoy it!
If you would like to submit a new topic please add your comment below with a title and the topic you would like to submit and we will add it as a new topic to the blog.
We have updated the car parks page to include the prices for parking in the town.
http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/page.aspx?p=carparks
http://www.foxleisure.co.uk/detail.asp?id=181 has sale agreed for the swanage bay view caravan park.
The following was submitted to the blog earlier:
Swanage Bay View Holiday Park has been sold!!
According to the website of Fox Leisure, which has handled the sale of SBV, as of Monday 8th June the Park is listed as SOLD. The new owner(s) is(are) not known, but the local betting is on Shorefields who own the site next door and who have an obvious relationship with SBV and the Vista.
Let's hope the Vista will continue to offer its amenities to the residents and visitors of Swanage (albeit now on a fully commercial basis). Let's also hope that the new owners develop a better relationship with the caravan owners, who constiture the largest group of visitors to Swanage and support the town in so many ways. Their patience has been sorely tested by STC over recent years.
It should be noted that the sale of SBV has been handled by STC without consultation with either the caravan owners or town residents, both of whom are major stakeholders. Therefore any credit for success, or blame for failure, must be attributed to the Town Clerk, the Mayor, STC Caravan Committee, and all the Town Council, who are entirely responsible for what transpires. Let's hope for all our sakes that wisdom has prevailed.
Following my articles in the Gazette requiring specific answers to specific planning questions, from planning officers and elected representatives.
I have heard nothing whatseover from any District Councillor or Planning Official. So I for one will be staying at home on Thursday.
But the good news is that on one specific point I have - in writing - a letter from Councillor Steve Poultney of Swanage Town Council stating "There will be NO development on Beach Gardens. Never, ever, over my dead body".
Thank you Steve. If only all your colleagues were as forthright and as forthcoming as you, there would be fewer misunderstandings between the Council and the electorate.
But in view of your comment, I might be inclined to sleep with a shotgun beside the bed. Some people will go to any lengths...................................
When out walking my dogs tonight, I saw this dog waste bin on the side of Dump Road which was in very bad need of emptying. The floor around the bin was also covered in bags of waste.
All of us dog owners are told to clear up after our animals and use the bins provided but shouldnt they at least be emptied so they can be used correctly?
Due to the online shop on this website having poor sales and the very expensive online payment charges, we have removed the online prints shop from the site.
You can order prints of the area on the local photographers website at http://www.andrewdorey.co.uk/
And here's the full text of the next one which got edited .........
Dear Sir,
I am disappointed that A C King (Advertiser May 7th) highlights the fact that two of the three letters on the subject of tourist-related businesses came from outside the Town’s boundaries.
Whilst accepting that I am not directly affected by the volume of visitors, this surely does not preclude my protestations on behalf of all Swanage’s seasonal businesses, not just one in particular. Take the time, Mr. King, to think exactly how many people are directly and indirectly employed by the tourist businesses; not just the waitresses and shop assistants, but the decorators, plumbers and carpenters who work on the shops and the homes of the business owners, the garages who service their cars, and so on. Swanage’s economy is inter-related and inextricably linked with the tourist trade.
Very few of the issues which I take up actually concern ME. It would be very easy to ‘shut up shop’ and retire to my house in Harmans Cross with my deckchair and my cats. But one has to take a broader picture, stand up for, and try in some way to work for the community in which I have lived for over 60 years.
If you, Mr.King, have lived here for your whole life and detest tourists, why don’t you move away ? And conversely, if you knowingly moved into a Tourist Town then you have no justification for complaining about the tourists.
And finally; “You Don’t Hear OAP’s complain”. Sorry, Mr.Editor, you got that wrong ! The media is full of OAP’s complaining about the meagre interest on their savings; they’re lucky indeed to have savings. The point of savings is to provided for a ‘rainy day’ and economically-speaking, it’s pouring. I’d rather earn 0.5% on my ISA’s if it means that the low rates can give much-needed relief to those not as fortunate as myself, stuck with huge mortgages to pay.
Life shouldn’t be all about “how it affect ME”. No man is an island.
