Local news, what's on and the information you need across Dorset, from Dorchester to the Blackmore Vale.
The Dorset Post

Dorset · Local news you can trust

Dorset news, what's on and local information

Dorchester Mary Anning Exhibition, Dorchester: 30 Jan to 2 May 2027 Poole Poole Museum Needs £10,000 to Keep Wilsher-Mills Masthead Care homes Christchurch Care Home Holds Diwali for Shashi on 2 Nov

Coming up

All The events
  1. Sat 24 Oct Weymouth parkrun 9am · Lodmoor Country Park · Free
  2. Sat 24 Oct The Great Field parkrun, Poundbury 9am · The Great Field · Free
  3. Sat 24 Oct A Creepy Circus, Live Actor Trail 10am · Weymouth town centre, starting at Primark · From £2.75
  4. Sat 24 Oct Albi & Us family activity session 11.30am · Bank by Nicholas James · Free
  5. Sat 24 Oct The Amazing Bubbleman 2pm · Electric Palace · From £16.50

Latest Dorset news

Local Info Dorset Petrol Prices: Cheapest Unleaded and Diesel Today Cheapest petrol in Dorset today: unleaded from 172.9p and diesel from 198.9p a litre, across 5 forecourts within 8 miles. Updated every morning from the... Local Info Dorset Weather: 7-Day Forecast and Today's Hourly Outlook Dorset weather today: rain, 13°C by day and 9°C overnight, with a 100% chance of rain and winds up to 29 mph. Seven-day forecast, updated every morning. What's On Chesil Beach: Where to Get On It, and When It Is Closed Chesil Beach is 18 miles of shingle, but from Abbotsbury to Portland it is closed to the public from May to August. Where to get on it, parking and dog rules. · 7 min read Environment Dorset Wildlife Trust Appeal: £25,000 to Spread Rewilding Dorset Wildlife Trust wants £25,000 to take what it learned at Wild Woodbury, where skylarks went from 2 territories to over 55, to more land across Dorset. · 5 min read Farming SFI Shut in Six Hours: Dorset MP Wants Emergency Farm Aid Farm payment scheme SFI closed six hours after opening on 22 September. Vikki Slade MP wants immediate funding for Dorset farmers who were locked out. · 4 min read What's On Studland Beach: £4 Parking, Four Beaches and Dog Rules Studland Beach is four National Trust beaches, parking from £4 for two hours. Which beach is which, where the naturist area is, dog rules and the ferry closure. · 6 min read Poole Altitude Poole: Car Park Back After £13m Cladding Rescue The car park at Altitude on Parkstone Road, Poole, has reopened after six years. Wall repairs rose from £8m to over £13m, all paid by the Building Safety Fund. · 2 min read What's On Old Harry Rocks Walk: 1 Mile From Studland, Parking £4 Old Harry Rocks walk: 1 mile and about 20 minutes from Studland's South Beach car park, £4 for two hours. The Ballard Down loop, Swanage route, dogs and cliffs. · 7 min read Verwood Stephens Castle Verwood: Fence Cut Before Livestock Arrive Fencing at Stephens Castle in Verwood was cut in many places on the night of 15 October, shortly before grazing animals arrive. The fence must be rewired. · 3 min read Christmas Dorchester ice rink 2026: dates due, Bournemouth from 12 Nov Skating in the Square has opened on Brewery Square's switch-on day three years running; this year that is 28 November. Last winter's price, £11.50. · 6 min read Bovington Tank Museum King Tiger: Engine and Gearbox Loaned by Sweden The Tank Museum at Bovington will borrow a rare King Tiger engine and gearbox from Sweden to get KTV2 running, with £506,000 of its £1m target raised. · 4 min read Business 865 Dorset Firms Closed in Six Months: MP Wants VAT Cut 865 Dorset businesses closed and 790 opened from January to June, ONS figures show. Vikki Slade MP wants a hospitality VAT cut in the coming Budget. · 4 min read
See all Dorset news

Dorset Council covers everything the Bournemouth conurbation does not, which is a very large and very rural authority with no single town at the middle of it. Dorchester is the county town and where the council is based. Weymouth is the largest place. Sherborne, Shaftesbury, Gillingham and Sturminster Newton are up in the north around the Blackmore Vale, Bridport and Lyme Regis are out west, Blandford Forum sits in the middle, and Wimborne, Ferndown, Verwood and Swanage are east and south.

The Dorset Post reports what the record shows across all of it. One council makes the decisions on planning, bins, parking and council tax for the lot, and publishes the evidence where hardly anybody reads it. We read it and write down what it says, with a link to the document on every fact.

Start here

  • Dorset house prices: the £326,381 county average, and what the middle home actually sold for in nineteen towns from Portland to the Hampshire border.
  • Trains to London: Gillingham reaches Waterloo in 2h 07m for £8,212 a year, Weymouth takes 2h 51m and costs £10,260.
  • Roadworks and travel: what is dug up and when, the A35 speed cameras, the chain ferry and the Weymouth park and ride.
  • Things to do in Dorset: checked 2026 prices, from free hillforts to a £15 car park at Durdle Door.
  • Planning news: 2.53 years of housing land against the five required, and a Local Plan that will not be adopted until 2029.

How the site is laid out

  • Local Info: house prices, trains, roadworks and planning for the Dorset Council area.
  • News: the public record, from the Vale to the coast.
  • What’s On: what is on across the county this week.

Every fact is linked to the document it came from.