Char Valley Parish Council
Whitchurch Canonicorum, Wootton Fitzpaine and Stanton St. Gabriel Parishes

Useful contacts
Planning
Applications
Meetings
Feedback
Photos
Map

Latest updates:
14th May: April Meeting Minutes
2nd May: Finance Meeting Minutes 16.10.07
16th April: March Meeting Minutes
16th April: Planning Application
9th April: April Meeting Agenda

Charmouth Beach by Guy Edwardes
Charmouth Beach by Guy Edwardes: (more photos )

welcome to the CVPC website

If you live within the group of parishes; Whitchurch Canonicorum, Wootton Fitzpaine and Stanton St. Gabriel, this is your community website. The CVPC has statutory responsibilities and an important role within the auspices of local government. The CVPC is the official 'grass roots'. We would like to develop these official roles and encourage residents to become more involved in what's happening in our locality.

This website and our newsletter will, we hope, help to keep our isolated communities in touch, and give residents a vehicle for expressing their views or raising issues of general interest. If you have any suggestions, criticisms, observations or queries about this website or our locality, this is a very good place to voice them. Please click Feedback where you can fill in a form which will be sent to Emma Hainesborough , the Parish Clerk. See Councillors/Officers to find a list of CVPC contacts.


What is the Char Valley Parish Council?
Char Valley Parish Council was formed in 1975 with the 'grouping' of Whitchurch Canonicorum, Wootton Fitzpaine and Stanton St. Gabriel Parish Meetings.

What do Parish Councils do?
Parish Councils are local authorities and have a number of duties and powers. To find out what the duties and powers of Parish Councils are see www.dorset-aptc.gov.uk/daptc2.htm. A Parish Council is the lowest level of local authority, not to be confused with the Parochial Church Councils (PCCs). The twelve Char Valley Parish Councillors are elected to serve all the residents of our three parishes.
Our Parish Council tries to maintain a close relationship with the local community. Any member of the public can attend our Council Meetings as observers, and at each meeting there is time set aside for local electors to raise issues of concern - The Public Discussion Period. Council Meetings take place in our three village halls in rotation: Whitchurch Canonicorum Village Hall, The James Hargreaves Hall, Morcombelake and Wootton Fitzpaine Village Hall. There are ten meetings a year - monthly apart from August and December. The AGM at which the Chairman is elected is in May. (Dates of 2007 meetings)
Our two (soon to be three) West Dorset District Councillors and our Dorset County Councillor usually come to our Parish Council Meetings and report back to those authorities.

Char Valley Parish Council Community Survey 2002
In 2002 the group parish council undertook a major community survey. If you would like a printable copy of the survey responses, click 'Response To Questionnaire' to download the MS Word Document (835kb).
Elections
Local Authority elections are held every four years. Our parishes will be divided into four wards for the next elections in May 2007. Wards will be as follows:

Whitchurch Canonicorum North (Whitchurch Canonicorum, Fishpond, Abbotts Wootton and the Vale) will elect four councillors.
Whitchurch Canonicorum South (Morcombelake, Ryall and the community around the slopes of Hardown Hill) will elect four councillors.
Wootton Fitzpaine (WoottonFitzpaine, Monkton Wyld and Fern Hill) will elect three councillors.
Stanton St Gabriel (Stanton St Gabriel, part Morcombelake and Stonebarrow Lane) will elect one councillor.
To find out which Councillors currently represent you click Councillors/Officers. To find out who can become a Parish Councillor and what it involves go to www.dorset-aptc.gov.uk/daptc4.htm


The Char Valley Village Communities
Action Plans 2003

The CVPC has now published the Action Plans 2003 for our grouped and individual parishes. The Action Plans have been put together by Community Groups, Clubs and Societies, Church Councils, Youth Groups, interested individuals and the Parish Councillors. Funded by a grant from The Countryside Agency, with the help of Dorset Community Action and Dorset County Council the 44 page Action Plans have been delivered to every household within the three parishes. They are also on this website (here) and can be downloaded, without photographs, as MS Word (69kb) or Acrobat PDF (117kb) documents.

The local authorities, all with different responsibilities for our area are:
Char Valley Parish Council
West Dorset District Council
Dorset County Council
SW England Regional Assembly


Our Parish is served by the Parish Clerk
Miss Emma Hainesborough,
24 St James Beaminster Dorset DT8 3PW.
Telephone 01308 863896 .
All matters such as fallen trees, pollution, damaged signs, blocked/closed footpaths, over-grown verges etc. can be reported to the Clerk, who will pass the report on to the relevant authority. All road repairs potholes in lanes, blocked road drains, should be notified to the District Council on (Freephone) 0800 23 23 23

'Char Chat' the CVPC Newsletter
The CVPC newsletter will be delivered to every household in our group of parishes 3 or 4 times a year. In the interests of saving money (35p per newsletter), we encourage those who can, to receive the email version instead. Please complete this request form.



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