In wishing all your readers the Season’s Greetings, reflections upon 2022 with all its joys and sorrows are unavoidable.
The joy of the Platinum Jubilee in June and the sorrow of Her Majesty’s death in September were remembered when His Majesty King Charles III came to Parliament just before Christmas to inaugurate the ornamental lamps on either side of the steps to the Jubilee Fountain in New Palace Yard.
The lamps are the gift from MPs and Peers for the Platinum Jubilee.
His Majesty also unveiled the plaque in Westminster Hall marking where his mother Lay in State.

All those who use the busy A31 at St Leonards should be alerted to the potential impact on congestion and safety of the proposed Brocks Pine Surf Reef development.
The planning application for a massive artificial wave park, south side of the Woolsbridge roundabout, was made over a year ago but comments from statutory consultees, including Highways England, are still awaited.
The proposed project on South East Dorset Green Belt land is both a major threat to the open character of the area and to the amenity of local residents.
As the surf reef is dependent upon removing current facilities from the Avon Heath Country Park including the visitor centre, nursery, café and car park, there is a question as to why Dorset Council, which owns those facilities, is indulging the project.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Dorset Council with the developer, W H White Limited, in July 2021.
It states that Dorset Council is happy for the developer ‘to prepare and submit an outline planning application and reserved matters encompassing the Council’s land’.
Dorset Council commits itself ‘not to oppose any planning application to support Option 3 of the Vision Document’ and to assist ‘in gathering survey information and other relevant information’.

The parties ‘agree to work together in a positive, open and transparent manner pursuant to optimising the public benefits of the scheme, whilst respecting that this is a commercial venture’.
The Council further agrees that ‘appropriate Dorset Council Officer time is afforded to this project; with a monthly progress meeting’.
Unfortunately, Parish Councillors and local residents, whom I met on a cold December morning in the car park of the Country Park, feel very much in the dark as to what is happening and are worried about the blight caused by indecision.
Although the Council apparently began its dialogue with the developer in autumn 2020, there does not appear to have been any consultation carried out by Dorset Council with local residents prior to the Memorandum of Understanding being signed to ascertain whether those local residents support the project in principle.
With all best wishes for 2023.