News Archive

“Please help me to fight for better treatment for people who battle Functional Neurological Disorder like me.” In the summer of 2017 Kate Bidwell had her life turned upside down by Functional Neurological Disorder. FND is a condition that is caused by a problem with the functioning of the nervous system and thought to be the result ...

Officers investigating a burglary in Poundbury are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to come forward. The burglary occurred between 10.20pm on Monday 11 February and 7.30am today, Tuesday 12 February 2019, at a home in Peverell Avenue East while the occupants were asleep upstairs. One of the victims, a man aged in his 70s, came ...

A man has been arrested and charged in connection with the alleged theft of items from a store in Weymouth. It was reported that at around 11.45am on Saturday 19 January 2019 a man entered the shop at the BP petrol station on Dorchester Road and picked up a number of items before making off ...

Officers are appealing for witnesses to come forward following a fail-to-stop collision in Weymouth. At 4pm on Tuesday 29 January 2019 a collision occurred on Queen Street involving a Sym Jet4 moped and an unknown 4×4. The moped was travelling along Queen Street toward King Street when the rider was knocked off by a car, described as ...

It’s been a give-away day at West Dorset District Council with almost £420,000 in grants and loans given to local community projects in the space of a couple of hours. Council leader Tony Alford said after the meeting that he was delighted the council was able to help so many organisations…before it goes out of business ...

Officers investigating a distraction theft at an antiques fair near Dorchester are appealing for anyone with information to come forward. The fair was being held at Kingston Maurward College on Sunday 3 February 2019. One of the stallholders reported that at around lunchtime a man and woman approached her stall and selected four silver bracelets and ...

How local communities would recover from a disaster or major incident was discussed by Dorset Local Resilience Forum (LRF) partners this week. Recent national incidents – such as the Grenfell Tower fire, significant flooding in different parts of the country and the terrorist attacks in London and Manchester – have highlighted the importance of recovery and ...

Police and Crime Panel members have approved plans to raise the amount of money households pay to fund Dorset’s police service by £2 a month. Martyn Underhill, Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Dorset, held a six week consultation into proposals to raise the precept – the part of a council tax bill which funds policing ...

From 7 – 14 February, 10am until 4pm, you can create your own Valentines Day Card at Dorset County Museum, 14 Pope Street, Brewery Square, while viewing samples of Victorian Valentines Day Cards from the Museum’s collection. This event is free, and there is no need to book.

The borough planning committee were told on Wednesday that the existing building, last used as a cafe, will be knocked down by mechanical digger and the area re-surfaced. Other buildings in the area will be demolished later in the year, with applications expected in March. The pier is being demolished above deck level to make it ...

A man has been arrested in connection with a reported serious assault in Dorchester. At around 3.30am on Wednesday 30 January 2019 Dorset Police received a report of a disturbance involving a group of men and women near to the Shell petrol station in London Road. It was reported that two men were assaulted with a bladed ...

A REFERENDUM is being held in Holwell today (Feb 07) to vote on the area’s neighbourhood plan. If approved and adopted it will give a greater say over future developments in the parish. Residents are being asked to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the proposals which were drawn up by local people and agreed by the parish ...

Tuesday’s Weymouth and Portland borough council meeting had to be abandoned after its chairman became unwell and officials cleared the room. Council leader Geoff Cant had just opened a debate on the transfer of assets to Portland Town Council when he needed support from vice chairman Mike Byatt as he started to fall forward from his ...

A Weymouth man wanted in connection with a reported assault has been arrested and charged. An appeal was issued by officers searching for Jacob Lemm, 22, who was wanted in connection with an alleged assault in Louviers Road in Littlemoor on Friday 18 January 2019. Lemm was arrested on the afternoon of Tuesday 5 February 2019 and ...

Children at Southill Primary School in Weymouth have designed a park and stride scheme to encourage students and their families to be more active and environmentally-aware. The Year Six students planned and mapped the route along traffic-free paths, with no roads to cross, before walking along it to assess how long it took. The aim of the ...

On Friday morning last week, the school was greeted with a terrible sight! Tyre tracks leading up to the gate post suggest a large vehicle hit the post late Thursday night (after 9:00pm on 31/01/19) or early Friday morning (before 6:00am on 01/02/19). Before children arrived on Friday the school safely removed the gate and ...

Crews from Dorchester and Weymouth station were mobilised to reports of a fire at a commercial site on St George’s road, Dorchester, this morning (Friday). The first crew on scene discovered that the fire had been extinguished prior to their arrival and proceeded to carry out an inspection only. The first crew were able to stand down ...

Detectives investigating a serious assault in Dorchester are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to come forward. At around 3.30am today, Wednesday 30 January 2019, Dorset Police received a report of a disturbance involving a group of men and women near to the Shell petrol station in London Road. It was reported that two men were ...

A LIFT in Dorchester’s Corn Exchange building could be replaced – after people became stuck in it and because of rising maintenance costs. On one occasion the fire brigade had to be called to rescue two occupants who were safe, but unable to get out. The lift was installed in 2010 and, according to a report by ...

It was a case of standing room only at Dorchester’s Colliton Club as more than 60 people flocked to the launch of the county’s new independent political movement ALL for Dorset. They heard author and pioneering campaigner Peter MacFadyen talk about how independent councillors had taken control of Frome town council by being open and transparent, ...

A new birthing pool hire service is now available at Dorset County Hospital, thanks to a generous donation. The pools were donated by Claire Williams, a long-time advocate and supporter of homebirths, to the hospital’s Cygnet Homebirth Team. In 2011 Claire sought to give local women access to birthing pools at home, to save them the expense ...

Officers investigating a fatal road traffic collision near Bridport are appealing for any witnesses or anyone with information to come forward. The collision occurred at around 7.50pm on Wednesday 23 January 2019 on the A35 near to the turning to Eype. It involved a red Ford Fiesta, a silver Nissan Micra and a silver Volkswagen van. Sadly, ...

Over the past five days, staff at Weldmar Hospicecare have been celebrating 25 years of providing Hospicecare throughout Dorset. But today those celebrations were dampened by the news that thieves had targeted the charity. Just after 8.30am on Wednesday 23rd January, staff at Weldmar’s Poole Furniture Outlet on the Nuffield Industrial Estate, discovered that their delivery ...

A new art exhibition is capturing people’s eye at Dorset County Hospital. Thanks to Dorchester Camera Club the walls inside the hospital are looking a lot brighter. The club has partnered with Arts In Hospital in a new exhibition to display the talent of its members. The exhibition showcases the diversity of interest of club members – from ...

Officers investigating a burglary at a Wareham home are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to come forward. Sometime between 5.20pm and 9.15pm on Monday 21 January 2019 entry was forced to a property in Stour Drive through a ground floor window and an untidy search of the premises was carried out. At this stage ...

Since 2012, the number of people killed and seriously injured on Dorset’s roads has shown a sustained fall. In 2012 it was 355, in 2018 with figures to be confirmed, it was 239, a reduction of slightly more than 32 Slight or minor collisions have showed a similar reduction of a little over 30%. An ...

Officers investigating an assault in Weymouth are appealing for any witnesses or anyone with information to come forward. At around 2.30pm on Friday 18 January 2019 two women went to intervene in an altercation between a man and a woman in the alleyway that runs between Primula Close and Louviers Road in Littlemoor. The man responded by ...

Detectives are appealing for information from the public after a man was found with a head injury in Weymouth. Dorset Police was called by the ambulance service at 9.54pm on Saturday 19 January 2019 to reports that a man aged in his 20s had been located unconscious with a head injury on Beverley Road in Weymouth. He ...

A dedicated team of community support workers has been set up to provide short term care to frail and vulnerable people living in the most remote parts of North Dorset. Dorset HealthCare’s new Community Support Worker Service offers care for patients in their own homes in a bid to prevent hospital admission, enable early discharge from ...

A section of the Marsh leading to the Rodwell Trail in Weymouth has received a major refurbishment by Dorset County Council’s Greenspace service. Brambles and other vegetation were cut back to reveal a large amount of litter that had accumulated in the undergrowth over the years. This was tackled by a huge litter-picking effort by the ...

Dorset County Council’s highway fixers will be treating more of Dorset’s damaged roads thanks to extra funding. Starting this month, Dorset Highways will have three resurfacing gangs in action repairing 53 sites across the county up to the end of March. The sites have been identified from inspections by community highway officers, with the site-specific treatments designed ...

13 students across Dorset are campaigning to become the county’s next Members of Youth Parliament. They will stand for election at the end of this month, with voting taking place in schools between 28 Jan – 1 Feb. Two Members and two Deputy Members of Youth Parliament will be elected. Dorset County Council runs the campaign in ...

Officers are appealing for witnesses to come forward after a teenage boy was assaulted in Weymouth. At 6.30pm on Friday 4 January 2019 an incident occurred in the area of KFC and McDonald’s at the Jubilee Retail Park on Jubilee Close in which a 16-year-old local boy was assaulted by a group of people following an ...

Two men have been arrested after officers executed a drugs warrant near Dorchester. At around 8.55am today, Wednesday 9 January 2019, officers from the Neighbourhood Policing Team with support from other colleagues carried out the warrant at two properties in the Wardon Hill area. Inside four lorry containers officers found what they believed to be cannabis plants ...

A radiographer from Dorset County Hospital has been making a difference to those less fortunate. Linda Chappell, who has worked at the Trust for 19 years, travelled across the globe with the Kenya Orthopaedic Project (KOP). Exploring Global Health Opportunities (EGHO) have been working with the charity Medical and Educational Aid to Kenya (MEAK) to deliver annual ...

Parents of children starting primary school this year have just one week left to apply for their child’s reception place. The deadline is Tuesday 15 January. The deadline is for children who are starting school for the first time, transferring from First to Middle school or transferring from Infant to Junior school in September 2019. There are ...

Chief Constable James Vaughan has been awarded the Queens Police Medal (QPM) for his 27 years of service to British policing. The QPM is awarded to those in the Force who have shown gallantry or distinguished service. During his time in the police he has helped transform the service both locally, regionally and nationally. He has ...

A roadshow is being held throughout January to ask members of the public for their views on paying £2 a month to fund police. Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill has launched a consultation to ask members of the public for their views on paying a slight increase in their precept – the part of ...

With local hospitals coming under increasing pressure after the festive break, people are being asked to help stop the spread of the flu and norovirus bugs and help minimise disruption to local services. Make sure you get your flu jab The flu virus strikes in winter and it can be far more serious than you think. Flu can ...

One crew from the Dorchester Fire station were mobilised to a report of a chimney fire in a pub in Abbotsbury this morning (Thursday 3rd January). On arrival crews confirmed the fire which was confined to the chimney. A Chimney kit was used to extinguish the fire in the property on Market Street in the village.

Dorset HealthCare has been rated as one of the top four NHS trusts in the country which are providing an extremely high level of care for people with mental illness. This is according to findings published in the latest Community Mental Health Survey carried out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which found the Trust’s services ...

It’s the start of a new year. Time to take stock and make changes in your life. Will 2019 be the right time for you to make a difference to a child’s life? Being a foster carer is a rewarding career. With many different ways to foster including providing short breaks and respite, short-term or long-term ...

Earlier this month the Exeter Northcott Theatre live streamed their pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk to the children’s ward at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. This enabled children and their families who were unable to attend the performances at the theatre to see the panto. This kind gesture inspired John Gurd a local photographer and ...

Dry January is the UK’s one-month booze-free challenge. This year we are encouraging residents to join Public Health Dorset and take up the challenge to feel great and save some cash. Lots of us feel like we’re drinking a bit too much, or too often, or just like we could do with some time off. Dry ...

A living room fire in Sturminster Newton extinguished quickly thanks to working smoke detection. A fire crew from Sturminster Newton fire station attended a property on Hanover Close, following reports of the smoke alarm activating. On arrival crews carried out an inspection of the property and quickly found there to be a small fire in the living ...

Officers are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to come forward following criminal damage to a home in Dorchester. The occupants of the property in Holloway Road were asleep at around 11.10pm on Wednesday 19 December 2018 when they heard the sound of smashing glass downstairs. They went down and discovered their front lounge window had ...

Officers investigating a serious assault in Weymouth are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to come forward. At around 2am on Christmas Day, Tuesday 25 December 2018, a man aged in his 50s was walking on Dorchester Road between the Marks and Spencer garage and the Manor Roundabout when he was almost involved in a ...

Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue received reports of a fire at a house in Weymouth on Christmas Day. Both crews from Weymouth were mobilised to a Fire at a Domestic property in Cornwall Close, Weymouth at 2PM. The first appliance arrived swiftly within three minutes of going mobile to the Incident. Crews confirmed the fire was located ...

Staff at Dorset County Hospital asked people to think about the gift of organ donation as they switched on their Christmas tree lights. The hospital’s organ donation team has sponsored a tree to highlight the importance of discussing your wishes around organ donation with your family. Dr Andrew Ball, Critical Care Consultant and Clinical Lead for Organ ...

At 10:00 today (Saturday) a fire engine from Weymouth was called to reports of a child locked in a car. The crew arrived at All Saint’s Road in Weymouth and used small tools and breaking in equipment to release the child. The child was reunited with happy parents!

Christmas can be an exceptionally difficult time for vulnerable children in Dorset – but it’s also a time when we all think about how we could make a difference. Dorset County Council is asking: could you give a child a home? People are needed from all walks of life to sign up to be foster carers, ...

Christmas could have been a different story this year if it wasn’t for the fast action of staff at Dorset County Hospital. Unmistakable in his red suit and shiny black boots, Father Christmas arrived unexpectedly at DCH in need of an operation. Mr Claus came under the care of Vascular Consultant James Metcalfe and his team, who ...

Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill is reluctantly asking members of the public to pay the equivalent of an additional £2 per month to help fund policing. Last week, rather than providing a balanced funding settlement for policing, the government has instead placed the responsibility for the majority of this year’s settlement with Police and ...

Schools across Dorset are reaping the benefits of the faster, more reliable broadband speeds now available thanks to a council-run initiative. Superfast Dorset, working with its delivery partner Openreach, has provided around 84,000 homes and businesses with access to superfast broadband. But the roll-out has brought wider community benefits too, including making faster connections available to ...

Ten Dorset gritters have been named – by you – ahead of the cold snap. After the extreme weather of last winter – which saw 24-hour working to keep strategic roads open – Dorset Highways asked residents to name their gritting fleet. The team enjoyed reading through the many suggestions, and the names are now being unveiled: Chillingstone Cold-Harbour Gold ...

Andy Willis, Chair of Dorset HealthCare, has announced the appointment of Eugine Yafele as the Trust’s next Chief Executive, following approval by its Council of Governors. Andy said: “Eugine is a highly experienced leader with a wealth of experience since he started his NHS career as a nurse in London and has had a key role ...

With colder weather on the horizon, Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service has issued advice to local people on the best ways to stay safe and warm in the colder and darker months. Safe & Well Manager Vikki Thomas said: “Although December has been mild, the colder weather is just around the corner. As it ...

A man and a woman have been arrested following reports of assaults on two people in Weymouth. Dorset Police received a report at around 1.15am on Saturday 27 October 2018 of an incident in the rear car parks of The Richmoor and Mon Ami hotels on The Esplanade in Weymouth. It was alleged that two holidaymakers – ...

A very special guest helps officially open a new £9 million cancer centre for Dorset Dorset’s new multi-million-pound state-of-the-art cancer treatment centre was opened by Martin Clunes OBE this week. The official opening at Dorset County Hospital was on Wednesday night (12 December) with almost 200 guests including charity donors, staff, patient representatives and health officials ...

The Dorset History Centre has received a grant of over £56,000 from the Wellcome Trust – the UK’s leading medical research charity. The funding will support a year-long project to fully catalogue the Herrison Hospital (the county asylum) archive. The archive dates from 1832 and is of great interest to researchers and family historians alike. It will ...