Cannon Hill quarry proposals

Cannon Hill is an area of woodland which runs in to the centre of Colehill.

Dorset County Council have just published their proposals for sites suitable for quarrying over the next 25 years. Cannon Hill is included, proposed as a site for gravel extraction for a period of 15 to 25 years.

The idea is totally bonkers!

The site is completely unsuitable. It's in the middle of the village, access for at least some of the traffic would need to be through Cannon Hill Road, which is adjacent to Colehill First School. There are also significant numbers of properties backing on to the plantation. Not only in Pilford Heath Road and Cannon Hill Gardens, but also in Quarry Road and the roads around Bridle Way.

Complete madness. We'll be circulating letters to help people object in the next few days.

Milhams Recycling Site

I attended the Environment Scrutiny and Review Panel at Bournemouth Council tonight.

One point that was raised was the exclusion of anyone who isn't a Bournemouth Council Tax payer and lives more than 3 kilometers from Milhams Recycling and Waste Centre.

Undoubtedly this policy has helped Bournemouth's recycling and waste targets, but it has inconvenienced people in the general locality greatly.

Milhams is on the edge of Bournemouth, essentially where Bournemouth, Poole and East Dorset Councils' boundaries meet.

I'll be campaigning for this radius to be widened after the local elections in Bournemouth in May. The site is the closest waste facility for people in Merley, Bearwood, Canford Bottom and Colehill, yet many of these places are more than 3 kilometers from the site. If we are really committed to improving recycling and waste management we should find a formula by which people in the wider area can use the facility.