Gillingham Community Cinema was in need of a new home following the closure of the Methodist Church. We are pleased to announce that following a long search, a home has now been found at Vicarage Schoolroom on Queen Street! The team behind the community cinema have been working hard to get their equipment reinstalled and working, and have announced their opening night. The screening of Wonka (PG), starring Timothée Chalamet, will be at 7pm on Thursday 21st March. The film is not a remake of the original – instead it follows the story of the aspiring magician, inventor and chocolatier as he arrives in Europe to establish his chocolate shop at The Galéries Gourmet, with affectionate nods to the 1971 original. Tickets are £6 for adults and £1 for children under 12, and seats can be reserved in advance by emailing Gordon on [email protected] or calling 07817 379006. Early booking is recommended since it is likely that this event will be very popular. The team hope to see you there!
Enhancing business competitiveness: Dorset Chamber CEO Ian Girling says investing time in upskilling a workforce can pay huge dividends
We recently held the first Dorset Skills Day in Wareham, bringing Dorset training providers and employers together to promote the various training programmes and courses available for employees – many of them fully funded – to help support growth and raise skills in Dorset businesses. The day also offered employers a really good opportunity to discuss their training needs. Skills development is vital in all Dorset businesses for many reasons. Firstly, a skilled workforce increases the services and products a business is able to offer – vital in a competitive business environment, whether locally, nationally and internationally. Technology continues to evolve at an ever-increasing rate – and it’s vital that businesses are able to embrace this technology with the development of internal processes, improving efficiency as well as the development of core products and services. A skilled workforce will also result in higher productivity, improved job satisfaction and improved staff retention. This last point is absolutely vital given staff recruitment and retention continues to be one of the key challenges for businesses in all sectors across the country. There is also a genuine commitment from providers to do their absolute best to develop their services to best meet the needs of employers. This includes looking at flexible delivery to help this fit around the needs of business. No one path Staff development and training can follow many forms. Apprenticeships are now the preferred method of training and recruitment for businesses in many sectors – and this can be from a Level 2 entry-level programme right up to degree-level training. Providers will also be on hand to help with the paperwork. Other forms of training include online courses, in college and courses that can be delivered directly in the workplace. Dorset Chamber has an important role in helping facilitate a conversation between business and education. If you’d like to find out more about training for your business, please do get in touch. Finally the Dorset Apprenticeship Awards are still open for entry until 15th March. The Awards are free to enter for all businesses and apprentices in Dorset and celebrate the achievements of apprentices in the workplace. You can see more information on the Dorset Chamber website.
Giles and Annie retrace their epic motorbike journey, riding 8,500 miles on the 30-year-old bikes to discover the challenges facing the olive oil industry
Giles and Annie Henschel’s pair of BMW R100 GSs on the first road trip 30 years ago
“We got married in 1992, when we were living on a houseboat near Hampton Court. We both wanted to take a gap year out of our careers, so we sold everything we could and bought two motorbikes (BMW R100 GSs). We travelled through Spain, up the coast to France, Italy, Greece… It was during the Yugoslav war, so we had to adjust our route to go through Turkey, Syria – an utterly amazing country to be in 1993. Into Jordan, Israel, back into Jordan, Egypt, all the way down the Nile into Sudan, through the Western Desert into Libya – where we got arrested and deported twice – and then bumped our way back to the UK and ended in a bedsit, flat broke, in Southampton.” When Giles Henschel, managing director of Olives Et Al, was The BV’s Dorset Island Discs castaway in 2022, he described the year-long road trip with his wife Annie which was the inspiration for what became their life’s business. At the end of last year Olives Et Al turned 30, and the couple wondered what to do to mark the occasion: ‘The obvious thing, of course, was a repeat of the original trip, using the original bikes,’ says Giles. ‘And then suddenly, as that idea took hold, this whole spectrum of climate change just made it all the more important that we do it.’
Giles and Annie on their wedding day on the bikes
Out of oil The olive oil industry has been making headlines over the last few months, as customers have questioned the prices in the shops doubling in a year. ‘Our small jars of olives were retailing at £4.50 – they’re now £9.95,’ agrees Giles. ‘I know a lot of people feel it must be profiteering (sadly I don’t see a Ferrari in our car park) but the raw price is just astronomical. I have never known anything like it – never, not in 30-odd years. We’ve had to re-configure our entire product range, withdrawing some products completely and entirely re-working others. ‘To all intents and purposes Europe has run out of olive oil this year. We know whole areas in Tuscany that didn’t even bother harvesting in the autumn. In a good year, they all harvest their own trees. In a poor year, they have they what call an amici harvest, a friend’s harvest, where they collaborate and pick each other’s, put it all together and share it out equally. ‘In 2023, they didn’t even bother with an amici harvest. ‘Halkidiki, in Greece, had a 90 per cent reduction in crop – that’s 90 per cent fewer olives than in a good year. As a result, prices of olives have more than doubled as a raw ingredient. Where we were paying £3.10 a kilo last year, we’re paying £7 this year. And there are no contracts, either; we cannot fix the price of our extra virgin olive oil with even the biggest importers. You have to buy at the price on the day. It really is pretty serious.’
The 2024 Operation Watertight II planning is old school – a big map, pins and red string. The map sits on top of Giles and Annie’s original map from 1993, littered with their pencil marks and notes made en route.
The problem was last year’s weather. An olive tree loves a really long hot summer, then a bit of rain, harvest and a short, sharp and cool winter to rest and reset. Last year, a very warm winter was followed by one of the worst droughts and heat waves on record. When the olive trees were blossoming in April, the temperature was 40º – and the blossoms were just scorched off. After the fruit sets in May and June, a long, hot summer helps them slowly ripen. But the temperatures were just too hot for the few fruit that did manage to hang on. The signs for 2024 harvest aren’t good either – this winter hasn’t been cool enough or wet enough for things to recover. ‘There are around 11 million hectares of olive plantations around the world,’ says Giles. ‘And every single hectare absorbs four and a half tons of carbon dioxide, every single year. ‘It’s the world’s largest man-made forest – when you see an olive tree, it’s only there because it’s been planted by someone. Those serried ranks that you see in Spain or Greece or Turkey, they’ve all been planted by an individual, and an individual still goes to them every single year and tends them, prunes them and looks after them. ‘It’s a very, very precious resource. For every litre of olive oil that is produced, 10kg of CO2 is taken out of the atmosphere. We need more of them, but the problem is they take a hell of a long time to grow. Plus they need water – and of course there isn’t enough water. ‘And the other industry-wide problem – and it’s one affecting more than just the olive industry, actually – is a labour shortage. Younger generations just aren’t as keen to work on the land as their forebears.
Giles and Annie today, with their BMW R100 GSs
Operation Watertight II ‘So we started with the loose idea of recreating our first route. We’d called our first trip Operation Watertight, as we had intended to look at pollution and water rights across the region. We couldn’t raise the funding or the access to achieve what we wanted first time round, and Operation Watertight II is a fitting way to continue what we started almost 32 years ago. Like us, the bikes are 30 years older and, like us, needed a bit of an overhaul to make them ready for the road again! Some bikers came through and stopped at the HQ Deli in Stur for a coffee and a bite and we got chatting about the road trip plans. One of them went on and told BMW in Falmouth what we were doing. We couldn’t believe it when BMW then got in touch and said “Please bring the bikes to us, we’d love to have them here and get them ready for the trip – these are really historic machines.” They’ve honestly been amazing and we can’t thank them enough. ‘They are still the perfect bikes for a long road trip – incredibly robust, very resilient and completely analogue, so there’s no microchips, electronics or heavily mined minerals. The bikes are slightly different, but we deliberately made sure the engines and mechanics are identical. If ever we were in a situation where both of them didn’t work, we can cannibalise to get one running. ‘This time, we’re sticking to Europe because we’ve only got a 90 days tourist visa (thanks Brexit!). So we’re going across France, the top of northern Italy, through Slovenia into Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, down into Greece, Greek islands, down and all the way around the Peloponnese, over to an island called Evia, then right the way up to Thessaloniki. Across the top of Greece, over to Italy, down into Sicily, all the way around Sicily then up to Naples. ‘From Naples we’re sticking to the west coast, around the armpit down into France, to Spain, all the way down and then over into Portugal, back to Spain and home from Bilbao. ‘It’s about 8,500 miles.
On the road from Bahariya to Siwa Oasis, Western DesertAnnie and the bikes in the Byzantine city of Rasefeh, Syria – November 1992
We have questions ‘Basically, we know if we spoke to a politician, or a climate theorist or a university lecturer, they would give us their own view of the state of the industry. And we want to know what’s happening on the ground, see if we can find some commonality of experience. So this time round we’re specifically planning our route around olive oil producers, olive growers and farmers. ‘We’ll be speaking to at least two farmers every single day on the trip, as well as our own suppliers, asking them what it’s really like. How are they really finding it? What are they doing about it? How can things change? And then we want to share the Sicilian farmer’s opinion with the Spanish farmers, and the Spanish answers with the Croatians, the Montenegrins, the Albanians … ‘For a long time, experts thought the olive tree had been around for about 6,000 years – and for about 6,000 years man has been cultivating it. Recently, fossilised remains of olive trees have been discovered in South Africa, dating back around 96,000 years. They are very resilient, they will find a way – and we need to do whatever we can in order to preserve them and protect them. It’s such a valuable crop for the planet, it simply cannot be allowed to just be wiped out.’
Annie riding across Wadi Rum, Jordan
to follow Operation Watertight II and keep up with the latest from Giles and Annie’s trip, you can find updates on Olives Et Al’s website here
At last, there are jobs waiting on your list this month – Pete Harcom suggests a good start now will prevent things getting out of hand later
Even a tiny garden pond will encourage frogs, birds, slowworms and beetles, and all these help to keep those slug and snail populations down without resorting to pellets
At last, spring is in the air – but be careful, don’t get too excited and start buying bedding plants too early. It may be best to wait until late March before you purchase too many tender plants such as fuchsias and pelargoniums, unless you have some good frost protection like cloches or a cold greenhouse. It can be late April or even May before night-time frosts are actually over.
Jobs for March
from this month onwards – just rake the soil to a fine tilth on a dry day before you sow them. Watch the weather forecasts for frosty nights and protect if necessary with cloches or horticultural fleece – even old net curtain works!
Using a hoe may be all that is needed to keep weeds down before they get a hold in your borders. If it’s done in early March, when weeds in the borders are small, it will save a lot of work in the future. After the weeding is done, and if the soil is moist, it is a good idea to cover with a thick layer of mulch or garden compost.
March is the last chance to plant bare-rooted trees and shrubs. Now the soil is warming up, shrubs will soon begin to grow.
Fuchsias that were potted up in a cold greenhouse should start budding soon – start watering, sparingly at first, and prune away unwanted old growth.
Try and warm up your potting soils by storing them in the greenhouse or shed before starting off seeds.
Top up any potted plants with an inch or so of fresh soil.
Pest control Slug pellets are a problem for hedgehogs and frogs as they eat the snails and slugs that have been killed by the slug pellets and are then poisoned themselves. To reduce your reliance on slug pellets try creating even a small wildlife pond – they encourage wildlife in general, of course, but particularly frogs, birds, slow worms and beetles… and all these help to keep slug and snail populations down. Remember to clean up the inside of any bird nest boxes before the garden birds start exploring!
Pruning Prune Group 1 winter or early spring flowering clematis after they have flowered. Large flowered clematis (Group 2) can be pruned slightly, as they flower on the current year’s growth. The late summer flowering clematis (Group 3) should be cut now to around 30cm (1ft) above ground level, as they flower on this year’s growth. If you don’t prune these early, they may produce flowers too high on the plants for you to enjoy! Prune bush and shrub roses hard. Cut back any Cornus (dogwood) in the garden now for more colourful stems next year, and also prune your winter-flowering jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) when it finishes flowering, to similarly encourage new growth for next year’s blooms. And don’t forget – the clocks will go forward on 31st March …
The public perception challenge: how British farmers’ protests could risk alienating the very people whose understanding they need
Farmers in the Netherlands are protesting against forced shrinking of the livestock industry because of CO2 emissions
Despite being borderline Gen Z, I have an admission to make … I have never protested. It’s not that I lack the passion, or that my art skills don’t convert well onto placards, or even that I don’t want to get glue on my favourite jeans. I simply never had the reason to cause disruption. It’s safe to say that the Just Stop Oil protesters have the passion, the art skills and charity shop jeans. What they lack now is the support of the public – frankly, their actions just annoy everyone who is trying to go about their day. Some of the footage of European farmers that has made it across the channel has been comical. Call me immanure (see?), but spraying slurry onto government buildings is pretty funny. And I tell you now, a police barricade looks great till a Massey Ferguson tractor ploughs through the middle of it! Poland, Belgium, France and the Netherlands have all experienced tractors rolling in to their capital cities in an attempt to change government policies that are making it ever harder for farmers to make a profit.
Berlin, Germany December 2023 – tractors at the Brandenburg Gate
On home soil Farmers here at home have been getting increasingly jealous, wanting to get in on the act and (literally) cause a stink. This week the Welsh have been the first to openly show their displeasure. The Welsh Parliament has announced that the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) to be introduced next year (to replace EU subsidies) will require farms to have ten per cent of their land planted with trees, and ten per cent of their land treated as wildlife habitat. How any farm could survive with a fifth of its land given up to non-profitable endeavours is beyond me, but it’s the ridiculousness of these controls that have turned fury into action. ‘Digon yw digon’ was written over hundreds of tractors as they, and an estimated 5,000 farmers, descended on Cardiff on Wednesday. The slogan (‘Enough is enough’ for those whose Welsh is a little rusty) encapsulates the Welsh farmers’ feelings that if actions are not taken there will no longer be a way to make a living for those in the Welsh countryside. The convoy of tractors shut down a major road in the city, while the talking was done in front of the Senned, the Welsh Parliamentary building. For two hours farmers stood in the rain listening to speeches calling for change. I will always back my farming brethren … but they must be very careful of the thin line that they walk when protesting. It is all well and good to make a statement and get your voices heard – and if you can annoy the government at the same time, even better. But we British farmers must not overstep the mark and turn the public against us.
The A15 motorway near Paris, where the demonstration by the farmers in their tractors is stopped by the police barricade
Get to work When you trundle your tractors into the major cities, the vast majority of the people you are disrupting don’t understand how their food really gets to their plates. They think we farmers are standing about in the sunshine throwing corn out of a bucket to a few chickens while we ‘oo-ar’ around a bit of straw. They literally don’t care that the price the farmer gets for a dozen eggs doesn’t even cover the cost of producing them – but they’ll quickly care when you add an hour onto their commute to work. Every single month I talk about how little positive coverage there is of farmers in the media. During the COVID pandemic, farmers gained an ounce of recognition for their efforts during lockdown. Unfortunately, that is becoming a distant memory. The public already presumes that the British farmer causes all global warming, makes the countryside stink at all times and makes all the food in the supermarket expensive … Let us at least not make them late for their meetings.
A typically colourful selection of Ukrainian preserved fruit and vegetables
The recent second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a sombre reminder of the trauma and horror that Urkainians have endured – and the continuing need to support the many refugees who are living in this area. If most of us didn’t know much about Ukraine’s distinctive culture and history before the Russian onslaught, we have all learned a lot now. Two workshops at Compton Macrae near Shaftesbury on 8th and 9th March will introduce participants to important aspects of traditional Ukrainian food. On Saturday 9th, from 4pm to 7pm, cook and writer Olya Patiuta will focus on fermentation, vegetables and soup. And on Sunday 10th, from 10am to 1pm, the workshop will feature varenyky, formed and filled dumplings with savoury and sweet fillings. Organised by the very active Shaftesbury Refugee Group, Flavours of Ukraine is intended for Ukrainian guests and the wider community of North Dorset and South Wilts. These hands on and active sessions, led by Olya of Zhiva Authentica, will bring new flavours and techniques to some and a taste of home to others. Join Olya at Compton Macrae, the deli and cafe at Semley, for one or both workshops. The maximum number is 30, to keep it interactive and fun. Olya’s Instagram feed, Zhiva Authentica, is full of mouthwatering photographs of her food, preserves, ferments and sourdough, details of the markets she attends and her masterclasses. To book for one or both of the workshops (places are very limited), visit shaftesburyrefugeegroup.org
Dorset’s allocation of NHS funding only provides eight per cent of the children’s hospice annual income – Rachael Rowe asks why
Scarlett with her Julia’s House nurse Helen
‘It shocked a lot of people. And it’s not for want of trying at national and local level.’ When the chief executive of Julia’s House, Martin Edwards, wrote a post on LinkedIn about the funding inequalities in children’s hospice care, it received more than 30,000 views and generated several shocked responses. Some hospices receive up to 30% of their funding from the NHS, though the national average is 13%. Dorset gets just 8%, and even that is no longer secure.
How it works Children’s hospice funding comes from a combination of charitable donations, including bequests, and a nationally-defined budget. For several years, NHS England has commissioned the service using a £25m grant, shared between children’s hospices in England. However, NHS England wrote to children’s hospices in April 2023 to tell them that this year (2023/24) will be the final year of the grant. In future, local integrated care boards (ICBs) will be responsible for providing all of their NHS funding. In 2022/23, Dorset ICB spent just £125,049 on children’s hospice care, and has additional contracts with a community-integrated continuing care team. Julia’s House receives no funding from the NHS in Wiltshire. The total NHS contribution to the Julia’s House budget, from contracts and grants, is just 8% of the hospice’s annual required income.
Respite care is an essential service Unlike adult end-of-life care, children with life-limiting illnesses are fewer in number, but many have highly complex and rare conditions. Apart from the instability and uncertainty of hospice funding, the costs associated with providing palliative care have escalated in the last year alone. The number of children with a life-limiting condition nationally has trebled in the last 17 years. According to the Dorset End of Life Care Strategy, there are believed to be 1,038 children between the ages of 0 and 19 needing palliative care support in the county. Julia’s House cares for 176 families across Dorset and Wiltshire, with around two thirds in Dorset. Martin outlined some of the issues: ‘We are seeing more children with complex needs now. More than 80% of our children require two staff members to be with them at any time. It’s an intensive process. We also continue to care for the entire family, supporting them for up to five years after bereavement.’ Hospices do much more than providing end-of-life care. Martin believes one of the reasons that Julia’s House receives less public sector funding is because it provides a lot more respite care. ‘People think of hospices as buildings that provide end of life care, but we do a lot more. Respite care is just as vital. ‘Research shows that respite care impacts upon the entire family’s wellbeing. We led a national research project with Bournemouth University, looking at how a child needing hospice care impacted the parent’s relationship. We found that the stronger parental relationships also had up to 43% more respite care than those families where relationships were struggling. ‘Another important research study from York identified that a mother of a child with palliative care needs is twice as likely to develop a heart problem as one with a healthy child. She also has an increased risk of mental health problems. Respite care prevents a crisis. If we can keep children stable and families healthy, we can avoid many problems. The most expensive thing is a bed night in hospitals.’
Martin Edwards, CEO of Julia’s House, took to LinkedIn to explain the funding inequalities in children’s hospice care
Equal, reliable funding Laura Gilbert’s four-year-old daughter Sophie has a life-limiting illness and has been waiting for a double lung transplant and major heart surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital for 10 months. The family is supported by Julia’s House and explained why respite care is essential. ‘Having a child with a life-limiting illness is mentally and physically traumatic and exhausting. A lot of parents suffer with chronic sleep deprivation and associated ill health because they are the primary carer for their affected child day and night. ‘Julia’s House offers services which can help alleviate that stress and provide support and care not only the child under their services but also for the parents and siblings. Having a poorly child impacts many generations of the family and Julia’s House goes above and beyond in offering any support/services that they can. The staff bring a sense of inclusion to all children, regardless of their physical and mental capabilities. When you see your child feeling supported, included and cared for so exceptionally, it reminds you that you are not alone in this. To be able to offer fully supported respite sessions in the child’s own home, giving the parents some time out, or to simply spend time with their partners or other children, is invaluable. It gives to the whole family. ‘I don’t think it is acceptable that so many of the services that a hospice provides are funded purely by the generosity of the public. It is utterly amazing how many incredible people and organisations donate, raise and support Julia’s House financially, and it is very much needed year after year to enable the hospice to function and provide the exceptional service that it does. ‘We, as service users, are so thankful that the public supports the hospice. Simply, without them, our children wouldn’t receive the quality and range of care they get. Care costs should be funded by the government each year, and a guarantee given that each children’s hospice has a contract and sustainable financial support that is equal across all children’s hospices around the country.’ Staff at Dorset ICB were unavailable for the interview but shared their county-wide end-of-life care strategy, which includes integrated working between community teams and hospices. However, with Dorset’s funding allocation at a paltry 8% and an increased demand for services for children with life-limiting illnesses, it is perhaps time to look at an equitable funding model for children’s hospice care that values preventive interventions like respite support.
