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Keep up to date with the latest Newsbites from the Sutton Poyntz Society

06 June 2024 - Village BBQ - Sunday 30th June

The Mission Hall are running a Village Barbecue on 30th June, in the Mission Hall garden, starting 12.30. Tickets, £10 (£5 for children), can be obtained from Maureen Morris (telephone 835533 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ). Bring your own meat/fish/whatever to barbecue, and your own booze - we will provide salads, sweets, and a starting drink, as well as barbecues to do the cooking. (If you have a barbecue you would be willing to lend for the event, please contact Bill Egerton on 833728 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ). Proceeds for Mission Hall funds.

Also, advance notice that Joanna Quinn, the author of the best-selling novel "The Whalebone Theatre", will give a talk at the Mission Hall, on the evening of Friday 12th July (start time to be confirmed). Tickets, £5, from Sue Cottam (telephone 833582 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Joanna was brought up in Dorset, and is just in the process of settling in Sutton Poyntz. The Whalebone Theatre, her first novel, was published in 2022 and quickly became a best-seller both in the UK and US. The novel is set in Dorset.

Bill

5 June 2024 - Northern Lights and then Coffee

A couple of reminders:

Firstly to look towards the north of the village at 21.45 on Thursday evening to see the Beacon being lit to commemorate D-Day.

And secondly to come to the Coffee Morning at the Mission Hall on Friday at 10.30 for left-over fish-and-chips and prosecco. If not there's sure to be cake...

J & S

25 May 2024 - D-Day Lighting and Telephone Box

Final Reminder - D Day Beacon Lighting - Thursday 6th June

If you are hoping to join us for our D Day Beacon Lighting this is your last chance to book your Fish and Chips and Prosecco. The cut off day for ordering is Sunday 2nd June. Remember BYO extra drinks.
Contact Sue Smith on 07813 267788 or Shirley Davies on 07988 163121 for tickets priced at £10.

Telephone Box Library

The library is looking a bit thin on the shelves – those books worms must have been working overtime. If you have any spare unwanted paperbacks please put them in the library to keep those bookworms satisfied.

Thank you - H

21 May 2024 - Mission Hall building works

Dear all,

In our previous newsletter (12 April), we told you about our plans for a variety of improvements and maintenance works that the Mission Hall Committee are planning to do. As a first step, we have just put in a Planning Application for replacement windows for the main hall. This application can be viewed on the Dorset Council website (https://planning.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/plandisp.aspx?recno=405424) or via the village website Planning page (https://suttonpoyntz.org.uk/index.php/our-village/environment/planning). We intend to replace the timber single-glazed windows with double-glazed UPVC windows, to the same format as the originals but with the upper panes top-hinged and opening outwards which will be a much more satisfactory arrangement. This will improve safety as well of course as making the building snugger and more energy-efficient.

We hope you will agree with us that this is a worthwhile improvement to the building. It is very much your Village Hall, so please feed comments, whether for or against what we are proposing, via the County planning system.

This is the first of a number of works that we have in mind. Since the last newsletter, we have been successful in winning another grant, meaning we can do more than we had expected; the next Committee meeting will look at priorities.

Can I remind you of the Mission Hall's AGM, on 26th June - an opportunity to hear more about these and other developments. We have vacancies on the Committee, so please get in touch if you want to learn more about what the Committee does.

Best wishes,

Bill

20 May 2024 - Forthcoming events

J is back from a little break and he'd like to give you some updates, clarifications and reminders about all the exciting events in and around the village in the next few weeks.

Road resurfacing

If you haven't seen the No Parking / 20mph signs on Sutton Road / Plaisters Lane you might not have noticed that there will be some "surface redressing" on Wednesday 22nd May. If you've grown to love any particular potholes make sure you say your fond goodbyes before Wednesday.

Barn Dance

The last few tickets (£10) are still available for this fun evening from Hilary and Sue or contact any other committee member.

Art Exhibition

Talented members of our village Art Group will be exhibiting their work at the Mission Hall on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th from 11.00am until 4.30pm. I'm told that entry is free and there will be coffee and cake. That's probably free too - if you buy a painting...

D-Day Beacon lighting with fish&chips

Forgive me but I think a box of matches would work better. But as you know we're going to be remembering D-Day on June 6th with a fish supper at the Mission Hall - make sure you're there for the delivery at 7.30pm! This will be followed by a stroll up to the Beacon and a glass of prosecco. Tickets (£10) are available from Shirley and Sue or contact any other committee member.

Replacement bench at pond

You may have noticed the poor state of the bench outside the Springhead. Weymouth Council have responsibility for the safety of such things and have declared it to be unsafe and beyond economic repair - and they were proposing to remove it. So the Society and The Springhead have decided to replace it, sharing the cost, so look out for a shiny new one soon! And just because the Council can't repair it doesn't mean that we can't - and use it somewhere else (but off the public highway!)

Society Subscriptions

And if you missed the AGM due to another more exciting appointment (really?) then here below is a reminder of how your subscriptions get spent. (The level of subscriptions is set to ensure we cover all the running costs of the Society without having to put on fund-raising events - that means any surplus from events can be directed at specific projects aiming to enhance our lovely village surroundings - such as a new bench!)

That pre-amble was a sneaky way to remind you to cough-up your £2.50 each to cover those costs.

And of course you can find all this stuff on the website anyway. In fact I encourage you to get into the habit of looking at the website. We do what we can to send out Newsbites and put up posters about forthcoming events, but I know some of those Newsbite emails end up getting accidentally deleted (nobody would deliberately do such a thing, surely?). And some of you don't drive through the village slowly enough to read the posters. The result is that people miss exciting stuff that's happening :-(

Here are some useful website links:

J & S

16 May 2024 - Blue Welly licence application - reply

We have received the following clarification from Jo, Karen and Steve at the pub, about their licence application:

Blue Welly licence application

Hi, It's Jo here from The Springhead,

As you are aware from the last Newsbite we have applied for a licence for the field behind the pub. I thought it's best if we explain the licence application and reasons behind it.

We run our weddings, dog show, ska fest etc through our wedding company Blue Welly Events. The reason for the application is so we can use the field for some of the weddings, enabling us to move the music and bar into the field and if we change the layout of the festivals it would also allow us to move the music and bar for these
There is no intention to use the field for anything else other than what we currently do now. We are if anything just moving what we currently do further away from the village.

Within the application we have asked for Mon-Sun 10am-11pm as these are just standard premises timings and we regularly get enquiries for weddings for any day of the week hence the Mon-Sun.

We run a limited number of weddings and events a year and we have no intention on increasing this. We have seen an increase in people requesting to hold their wedding in the field, which this application will allow us to offer.

The reason the licence is not being applied for under The Springhead is because the pub is under Punch Taverns. We have applied for the licence under our own company to retain control of it and during the consultation meeting with The Police Licencing Officer (Kirsty Gatehouse) we personally requested that should we cease to lease the field in the future we want to be able to terminate the premises licence along with it.

Our family has lived in the village for over 20 years and we have run the pub for over a decade, during this time we have always taken into consideration the village into everything we do.

In conclusion : we are not doing anything different nor increasing anything that we do not already do. All we wish to do is have the opportunity to use the field when needed.

If you would like to talk to us or if you have any questions regarding the licence, we would be more than happy to discuss them with you.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Karen 07968299421

Thanks for reading.

Jo, Karen & Steve
The Springhead

Bill (on behalf of J & S)

15 May 2024 - Blue Welly licence application

The following information has been received from Cllr Louie O'Leary, our Dorset County Councillor and Cllr Peter Dickenson, our Weymouth Town and Dorset County Councillor:

Blue Welly licence application

An application has been made for Blue Welly events about a premise license in respect to the field adjoining the Springhead pub for live and recorded music to be played alongside the sale of alcohol between the hours of 10:00:23:00 Monday-Sunday.

If you would like to make a comment on the application then please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or send it in writing to Dorset council licensing County Hall Dorchester DT1 1XJ.

Please if objecting stick to material objections based on the 4 main licensing objectives:

Protection of children from harm
Prevention of public nuisance
Public safety
Prevention of crime and disorder.

Good advice I can give as well is to try offer possible compromises such as "We would support this on a once a month basis or one off events" as it carries weight.

We are hoping to get this application brought to committee in order for people to speak at the meeting.

Regards

Cllr Louie O'Leary and Cllr Peter Dickenson

Bill (on behalf of J & S)

15 May 2024 - Barn Dance - Last call!!!

There are a few tickets remaining for the Barn Dance on Saturday May 25th at Preston Village Hall

So contact either, Sue, 07183 267788 or Shirley, 07988 163121.
It's an evening of fun with a professional band and caller and no previous experience necessary (thank goodness).

Kick off or first steps at 7pm. Nibbles provided (but please bring your own drinks and glasses).

J & S

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