Parts of South Dorset are among England s 10% most deprived areas Inset: Pixabay A ‘STRATEGIC ALLIANCE’ will be created in Dorset to tackle social mobility. Councillors say it is shameful that some parts of the county are amongst the most deprived in the country. The South Dorset constituency is ranked the lowest in the country for social mobility with the area having more children coming into the care of Dorset Council than anywhere else in Dorset. Weymouth and Portland also suffers from low wages, often seasonal, child poverty and poor health outcomes. Weymouth councillor Pete Barrow has called for a sense of urgency in developing plans to tackle the area’s problems, which is likely to include a multi-agency team developing a response to the problems.
Police and councils in Dorset are already working on plans to cope with a massive influx of visitors at Easter and in the summer. The county s police and crime panel heard that they were caught out by the huge numbers which flooded into the county last year as soon as lockdown was lifted. Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill says that although Bournemouth’s beach scenes worried him he was far more concerned by 3,000-plus people crammed onto the beach at Lulworth with virtually no facilities. This week’s police and crime panel heard that at the time nobody was able to get their hands on any low-loaders to take away illegally parked cars blocking roads, or with council partners, to find extra bins or portable toilets.
Rough sleepers are being put in b&bs. Inset, top, Cllr Jon Orrell, and Cllr Graham Carr-Jones More than 90 homeless people are being put up in B&Bs by Dorset Council – many as a direct result of the pandemic. The council says it is now working on finding more in-house accommodation, including for around 35 rough sleepers – although they will be spread across the county, rather than be concentrated on Weymouth, as happened during the spring lockdown. Housing brief holder Cllr Graham Carr-Jones says lessons were learned from the last time when security staff had to be used to keep the peace after repeated problems in and around Weymouth seafront and Park District.