News Archive

Detectives investigating the death of a man on Portland say a witness has come forward following an appeal. Officers were called to High Street, Fortuneswell, at 5.30am yesterday, Sunday 4 August, following a request from the ambulance service for assistance as they treated a man with a head injury. Sadly, the man – aged in his 50s ...

Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service is urging builders and contractors to ensure that their scaffolding is secure, following a recent incident. Firefighters were called when youths were seen on a roof in Dorset. Fortunately no rescue was required on this occasion. Group Manager Katie Cornhill said: “When we inspected the area, we established that access ...

Thousands of revellers gather for Music By The Lake with Weldmar Hospicecare at Kingston Maurward. Almost five thousand local people visited Kingston Maurward across the weekend for the first ‘Music By The Lake’ event, which has raised thousands of pounds for Weldmar Hospicecare. Organised jointly by Weldmar and Kingston Maurward, packed audiences enjoyed live music from Elton ...

Everyone is invited to Brewery Square’s birthday celebrations, taking place on Wednesday, August 7 at the £100 million development. An evening of opera and open-air theatre will from 5.30pm, and the schedule is as follows: • 5.30pm – enjoy the sounds of The String Quartet, and canapes and prosecco are available to purchase from Morris & Banham ...

Officers are appealing for witnesses or anyone with relevant dashcam footage to come forward following a fail-to-stop collision in Weymouth. At approximately 6.35am on Wednesday 24 July 2019 it was reported that a cyclist was involved in a collision with a red Honda Civic near to the Russell Hotel on The Esplanade. The cyclist, a local ...

Local school children from The Prince of Wales School have fought off competition from 42,000 other children to be winners in the 2019 Better Energy School Awards! The school’s entries ‘Together We Can Change The World’ and ‘What Shall We Do With All This Plastic?’ were jointly declared the Regional Winner in the ‘Totally Creative’ category ...

Don’t miss out on having your say on changes to dementia services. There’s just two weeks left to have your say on NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) review of the dementia pathway, which sets out proposed changes to improve services from the point of diagnosis to end of life care. Dr Paul French, CCG lead for ...

Four new recruits have joined Superfast Dorset’s army of Digital Champions. The latest volunteers mean Dorset’s councils can offer help with computers, tablets, smartphones and getting online at even more locations across the county. David Jones has over 30 years’ experience in IT and will be helping people at Charmouth library, near Lyme Regis. He said: “I ran ...

The roadside litter campaign was launched in Dorset last year aimed at people who throw their rubbish out of car windows. ‘Don’t be a TOS53R’ was designed to send a hard-hitting message to drivers and their passengers that our roads are not a network of litter bins – and that the owner of a vehicle ...

Officers are appealing for witnesses to come forward following an attempted burglary at a mobile phone repair shop in Dorchester. At approximately 4.30pm on Tuesday 23 July 2019 a staff member was serving a customer in Fix-It on South Street when they heard a noise coming from the stairs at the back of the shop. The staff ...

The Prince of Wales School in Dorchester said farewell to one of its longest serving Teaching Assistants with a very special assembly. Mrs Julie Webb has been a Senior Teaching Assistant at The Prince of Wales School in Maiden Castle Road, Dorchester for over twenty years. Julie, who is known for her artistic and culinary skills and ...

Home Start West Dorset is a charity working with families with a child under five, who are in need of practical help and emotional support. Helen Horsley, Manager of Home-Start West Dorset said “This year we are celebrating 10 years of helping local families, without volunteers we could not offer the service we do and make ...

A man has been sentenced after admitting causing a serious injury collision on the A354 Weymouth Relief Road. Ben Mykhal Holmes, 31 and of Lytton Road, Bournemouth, was sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court on Friday 19 July 2019 after admitting careless driving. He was disqualified from driving for two years, handed a £650 fine and told he ...

A retired consultant from Dorset County Hospital has published a book recording the development of children’s medical services over the past half-century. Richard Purvis, 78, and originally from East Lothian in Scotland, worked at Dorset County Hospital as a Consultant Paediatrician for 40 years, starting in 1973. Full of fantastic photos and anecdotes, A History of Dorchester ...

Temperatures are set to hit up to 29c in Dorchester today (Tuesday) with overnight lows not set to fall below 18c. Dorset is currently at Level 2 on the Met Office Heat-health watch (issued at 0845). This is triggered as soon as the risk is 60% or above for threshold temperatures being reached in one or ...

Officers investigating the theft of a tractor from a farm near Blandford are appealing for anyone with information to come forward. The tractor was taken from a barn at a farm in the Spetisbury area in the early hours of Saturday 20 July 2019. The light blue tractor is a distinctive model, an 8210 Generation 3 ...

A report being presented to Dorset Council Cabinet on 30 July outlines its financial position and forecasts at the end of the first quarter of the financial year. Significant savings have been achieved over recent months as a result of Local Government Reorganisation. Despite this, the council is currently forecasting an overspend for this financial year ...

Last week Dorset council voted to support Safe Passage (Dorset), provided that the government fully funds the programme. Safe passage is calling upon every local authority across the country to commit to accepting a minimum of three unaccompanied or vulnerable refugee children per year every year for the next ten years. These will be children from ...

Officers are issuing an urgent warning to the public after offenders gained access to a veterinary practice in Weymouth and stole a quantity of dangerous drugs. At 8.27am today, Friday 19 July 2019, Dorset Police was called to reports of a burglary at Moorcroft Veterinary Practice in Dorchester Road. A cabinet that securely housed the practice’s dangerous ...

Officers investigating a burglary at a farm in West Dorset are appealing for anyone with information to come forward. The burglary occurred on the night of Wednesday 17 July 2019, sometime after 8.45pm at a farm in the Maiden Newton area. It was discovered this morning, Thursday 18 July 2019, that a green Honda quad bike has ...

This Saturday 20th July sees the Open Day at the Dorset Police, Winfrith, HQ. From 11am – 4pm we will be opening up Dorset Police HQ (DT2 8DZ) to the public! Come along and meet: Dog unit | Drone unit | Traffic unit | Safety camera team | Neighbourhood policing team | Firearms unit | ...

Local people are being given the chance to shape health and wellbeing services in Dorset. Local councils and NHS services are working together on a shared plan which sets out health and wellbeing priorities over the next few years. The plan will look at a variety of things that affect the health and wellbeing of residents ...

Harry Burton’s evocative photographs of the discovery of The Tomb of Tutankhamun are currently on show at The Tutankhamun Exhibition in Dorchester. Tutankhamun’s Photographer is a special mini exhibition featuring a selection of gravure prints originally used in the book of an exhibition of Harry Burton’s famous photographs held in Chicago and New York. The ...

A Dorset sheep farmer has been prosecuted and fined after failing to adequately care for her animals and leaving dead sheep on her land. On 15 July 2019, at Weymouth Magistrates’ Court, Karen Harper (aged 51) of Charlton Marshall, near Blandford, Dorset, was today sentenced with a Community Order to carry out 180 hours of unpaid ...

Hundreds of people flocked to Dorset County Hospital in the weekend’s sunshine to enjoy its first Summer Spectacular. The event, held on Saturday 6 July, has been hailed an overwhelming success, raising more than £2,500 for the hospital’s Chemotherapy Appeal, and other good causes. The Grand Raffle alone raised £1,000 for the appeal. Deputy Mayor of Dorchester, David ...

Enforcement Officers from the Dorset Waste Partnership (DWP) recently worked with Dorset Council’s Legal Services and the police to bring a fly-tipper to justice. Dominic Adrian Woods (31, from Weymouth) was found guilty of fly-tipping in Whitcombe by Weymouth Magistrates Court on the 3 July 2019 following a trial. Woods had already pleaded guilty to ...

Dorset Highways will be returning to Goulds Hill, between Martinstown and Upwey, next week. Two weeks work was completed earlier this month to rebuild and strengthen the edges of the carriageway and resurface a 1800m stretch of road. Tests of the surface material have shown that it is unlikely to perform as expected and needs to be ...

At approximately 4:35pm today (Thursday) two pumps from Dorchester and one pump from Weymouth were called to reports of a large fire in the Maiden Newton area. Upon arrival the crews found a caravan well alight involving two 7 kilo butane cylinders with a further cylinder nearby but uninvolved. Crews quickly got to work fighting the fire ...

SOUTH WESTERN AMBULANCE SERVICE TO END ITS CONTRACT FOR URGENT CARE SERVICES IN DORSET South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) has announced it will be withdrawing from its contract to provide urgent care services across Dorset – including the NHS 111 service. The contract will be handed back to the local health partnership, which ...

Officers investigating a fail-to-stop collision near Dorchester are appealing for witnesses to come forward. At around 10.45pm on Wednesday 3 July 2019 a local woman aged in her 20s was driving her Honda Jazz in the outside lane along the westbound carriageway of the A35 Puddletown bypass near to Troy Town when a vehicle towing a ...

Officers investigating a fail-to-stop collision in Weymouth are appealing for witnesses to come forward. At around 3.30pm on Thursday 27 June 2019 a nine-year-old local girl was cycling along Bryants Lane when she was struck by a white car, causing her to fall from her bicycle. The matter was reported to Dorset Police at 8.15pm. The girl ...

Officers are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to come forward following a burglary at a construction site near Dorchester. A report was received at 6.55am yesterday, Monday 8 July 2019, about a burglary at a construction site at Silverlake in Warmwell. Sometime over the weekend offenders entered the site and stole a large quantity of ...

Are you the next Mary Berry or Prue Leath? If so Taylors Animal Centre on the Kingston Maurward Estate would love to hear from you. This unique charity, run by RSPCA West Dorset, is celebrating a very special birthday this year. It’s been 15 years since the centre opened and at our popular, annual open day ...

Dorset Art Market will return to the Avenue Stadium in Dorchester on Saturday 27th July for the penultimate summer market this year. The market organisers said “This promises to be our biggest and best market yet, with more artists and an exciting range of works on sale. Feedback on the previous markets has been excellent, with ...

A Dorchester school is celebrating after securing a £1,000 grant from the One-Stop’s ‘Carriers for Causes’ scheme. The money will be used to make The Prince of Wales School’s Community Wildlife Area accessible for children with disabilities. Headteacher at The Prince of Wales School, Mr Gary Spracklen said, “the funding will help the school to upgrade ...

Officers investigating a fail-to-stop road traffic collision in Weymouth are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to come forward. The incident occurred at around 5.30pm on Thursday 27 June 2019 outside of the bus depot on Commercial Road in Weymouth. A female pedestrian was involved in a collision with a car, described as being possibly ...

This morning at 4.21am the Service was alerted to a fire in an industrial unit on Dreadnought Trading Estate, Bridport. Initially crews from the town responded to this incident but they quickly requested support and there are currently 15 fire engines and support vehicles (approx. 75 firefighters) dealing with this incident. Fire crews from both ...

Dorset Council has brought together its new Climate Change Executive Advisory Panel for the first time. The panel was established following the declaration of a climate change emergency at Dorset Council back in May. It will work in partnership with organisations across Dorset to develop its climate emergency plan for Dorset. With a cross-party membership of elected ...

Officers are calling on the public to help them find a meerkat that has gone missing following a burglary near Dorchester. The meerkat is a two-year-old female and was being cared for at an address just outside the grounds of Kingston Maurward College when someone broke into the property between 4pm and 11.30pm on Tuesday 2 ...

Weldmar Hospicecare forecasts a significant increase in demand for its services by patients and families across Dorset The charity provides high quality care, love and support to terminally ill people during the last year of their lives, and to their loved ones. This care is provided completely free of charge in the comfort of patients own ...

Local residents are being invited to hear more about Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s plans to develop the hospital site during a drop-in event. The Trust is hoping to expand its Emergency Department (ED) and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as well as establish an Integrated Care Hub as part of a long-term project to deliver ...

Funds raised by the Friends of DCH have been used to build a new garage at Dorset County Hospital (DCH) in Dorchester. This garage will house the hospital’s new Blood Bikes, both of which were donated earlier this year. The Blood Bikes, which were previously kept at the Fire Station in Poundbury, now have a ...

It’s that time of year when seagulls are most active, scavenging for food wherever they can find it. Unfortunately, this means a few residents waking up to the sight of ripped open bin bags and rubbish strewn down the street on bin collection day. While most Dorset residents have wheelie bins to keep their rubbish and recycling ...

This weekend, DCH will be hosting its first Summer Spectacular! It will be held on the former Damers School field next to the hospital on Saturday 6 July from 2pm until 5pm. It will be a traditional fete with stalls and games, as well as a performance arena and a grand raffle – fun for all ...

New beach cleaning device to be named in honour of Purbeck woman who has removed over half a million nurdles from Swanage beach! A simple but highly effective device to remove pesky microplastics from Dorset beaches has been launched by Litter Free Coast and Sea and Litter-free Purbeck on Swanage South Beach on Tuesday, 2nd July. The ...

Parents and carers of children with special educational needs and disabilities are being asked to help plan short break activities in Dorset. Dorset Council commissions a variety of short break services, which allow children and young people to have fun outside the home and give parents and carers some much-needed time to themselves. In 2018/19, nearly 700 ...

The first orders for The Prince of Wales School in Dorchester’s new Eco-Uniform have now been delivered and the local school children could not be more delighted! The ‘Green Flag’ Eco-School announced last month that it was to become one of the first schools in the country to offer a more eco-friendly school uniform as part ...

Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service is reminding people to take care around heathland and open spaces during this warmer weather With warm weather expected this weekend means a heightened risk of wildfires across Dorset & Wiltshire. DWFRS Wildfire Tactical Advisor Andy Elliott said: “With a period of hot, dry weather being forecast, we would urge ...

This special annual event was held on Tuesday last week. A group of year 12 students planned and organised a party for volunteers and clients from the Royal Voluntary Service’s Home Library Service in the Dorchester area, and nearly 30 guests attended. The Sixth Form Common Room was transformed into a Café, where the students welcomed ...

Listen to an interview with museum founder Michael Ridley Dorchester’s Dinosaur Museum celebrates its 35th birthday on Thursday 27th June. 35 years ago, The Dinosaur Museum opened in Dorchester in June 1984 to great acclaim. From the very beginning visitors loved its novel and innovative approach to exploring the wonderful world of dinosaurs. It was and still ...

Officers are issuing images of three suspected stolen bikes that were recovered in Weymouth and appealing for the owners to come forward. On Friday 21 June 2019 a 40-year-old local man was arrested on suspicion of theft of a bicycle in the area of Ranelagh Road and a dark grey and silver Raleigh Velo bike with ...

Weldmar Hospicecare is Waterside Holiday Group’s chosen charity for 2019. The Group will be hosting fundraising events and initiatives throughout the year to raise vital funds for the organisation. The charity provides end of life care for people living in Dorset who need specialist support. It provides a compassionate approach and supports patients and their families ...

Bere Regis residents now have influence over development in their local area after Dorset Council’s cabinet adopted the village’s neighbourhood plan in June 2019. The neighbourhood plan was prepared by the community of Bere Regis. It sets out a vision and objectives for how the parish will develop from 2019 to 2034. A local referendum took ...

A new initiative to help communities who live close to areas at risk of wildfire has been launched in Dorset. Firewise UK is based upon the international Firewise programme run by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) of America. Organised locally by the Urban Heaths Partnership, it provides information for homeowners who live close to areas ...

The Sea Watch Foundation’s Regional Coordinator for Dorset, Catherine de Bertrand, has recently visited the Prince of Wales School in Dorchester. Catherine spoke to the children about the Sea Watch Foundation and the whales, dolphins and porpoise that can be seen around the UK. Speaking about her, Catherine said, ‘I was so pleased to see how the ...

Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS) is serving its communities well, it has been confirmed in its first inspection from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary & Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS). HMICFRS has spent the last year analysing data and documents and visiting the Service to assess it against three core themes – effectiveness; ...

Detectives investigating reported assaults on police officers in Weymouth town centre are appealing for any witnesses to come forward. At around 4pm on Sunday 23 June 2019 Dorset Police received a report of a man attempting to gain access to an address on The Esplanade. Officers attended and the man was located in the vicinity. As officers ...

Special constables carried out an operation over the weekend to target rural acquisitive crime in West Dorset. Between 7pm on Saturday 22 June and 4am on Sunday 23 June 2019 special constables carried out high-visibility patrols based on intelligence from the community to disrupt and target rural crime offenders. During the operation, over 200 people and vehicle ...

Residents are being urged to get behind Dorchester’s upcoming Children’s Carnival which will take place on Saturday 6th July 2019. The call comes from The Prince of Wales School Headteacher, Mr. Gary Spracklen who says, “we urge residents to support the first ever Dorchester Children’s Carnival”. Mr. Spracklen explains, ‘The ‘Children’s Carnival’ is the first of it’s ...

The Prince of Wales School in Dorchester has been named the Best Small Primary School in Dorset following the 2019 Sustrans Big Pedal! The Sustrans Big Pedal competition saw thousands of children cycle, scoot and walk their school journeys. The UK-wide event organised by the national cycling and walking charity ran from 25th March to 5th April ...