EASTER Monday, April 5, sees the launch of Osmington's shiny new website. The new site provides a valuable information resource for Osmington Village, Osmington Mills, Upton and Ringstead, all of which make up the parish of Osmington. The site is financed by The Osmington Society, and its Chairman, Geoff Codd, said, "A lot of time has been spent trying to bring www.osmington.info right up to date. We felt that it was important to avoid out of date information which is common in some community run sites, and have made it possible for organisations to maintain their own pages.”

Users will also find that the site provides more opportunities to share experiences. It is hoped that the site will be used by visitors to the area, so if you have accommodation or a business which you would like to be featured on the site, please contact katehallett@btinternet.com or log into the website.

  • PLEASE help the parish council to make their contribution to the annual West Dorset Spring Clean on Saturday, April 10. With support from the district council, the aim is to clear Osmington’s roadsides and surroundings of unsightly litter.

    As many people as possible are asked to gather at the Village Hall Car Park at 9.00am. Sacks and gloves will be provided and areas allocated. The more volunteers that turn up, the better our local environment will be through the summer months.

  • THE recorded music society has enjoyed several more interesting recitals. David McCririck’s stirring programme “Crowns and Coronets”, on February 15 was full of surprises. How many people had previously heard of music inspired by Ivan the Terrible (Bizet), or music actually written by him? There was also Handel (Royal Fireworks), part of an opera by Massenet (Le Roi de Lahore), Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances and a glorious finish from Elgar’s Coronation Ode.

    On March 1, Betty Roberts and Geoff Stokes of Wimborne Recorded Music Society, brought a mixed bag of delights including music by Britten and Gliere, and ending with Brahms, in an excerpt from his German Requiem and part of his Second Piano Concerto.

A return visit from Peter Foster of Dorchester Hospital Radio took place on March 15, with a programme on the history of music broadcasting, and on 29 March Joan and Geoff Linton of Shaftesbury’s Music for Enjoyment group are due to present “A Mediterranean Saga”. The Society’s first extra-curricular venture is a lunch at the Spice Ship to be held on March 22. April sees two more programmes planned. On April 12, Gilbert Satterthwaite, a long-standing friend of the chairman, will present “Sullivan without Gilbert”, and on April 19, (breaking the usual fortnightly pattern) Peter Stein, the society’s Technical Officer, will present “Time and Place”.

Meetings start at 2.15pm on alternate Mondays and last for about two hours - refreshments are included. For more information call Brian Bishop on 833225, or e-mail blbishop@waitrose.com.

  • LOTS of people throughout the parish have been working hard to analyse and to draw conclusions from the answers to the Community Plan questionnaire. Six separate working groups are addressing different aspects of community life, and will be meeting together at the end of March to share conclusions and review overall progress. The aim is still to produce an initial draft summary by the end of May with a full draft report the following month.