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

Swanage Swanage Weather: 7-Day Forecast and Today's Hourly Outlook Weymouth Weymouth Weather: 7-Day Forecast and Today's Hourly Outlook Wimborne Wimborne Weather: 7-Day Forecast and Today's Hourly Outlook

Coming up

All The events
  1. Sun 25 Oct Albi & Us family activity session 11.30am · Hotel du Vin Poole · Free
  2. On now to 31 Oct Bincombe Bumps Pumpkins, October Pumpkin Festival Bincombe Bumps · Free
  3. On now to 25 Oct Pumpkins and Fun on the Farm, Dewflock Farm Dewflock Farm · From £6.50
  4. On now to 1 Nov Halloween Experience at Moors Valley Moors Valley Country Park and Forest
  5. On now to 31 Oct October Illuminate, Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens

Latest Dorset news

What's On Golden Cap Walk: Two Routes to the 191m Top, and Parking Golden Cap walk: the gentle way up from Langdon Hill, the steep coast path from Seatown, a 4.5-mile loop past St Gabriel's, and National Trust parking. · 8 min read Food & Drink Dorset Restaurants: The Best Places to Eat Eight Dorset restaurants are in the Michelin Guide. Here they are with six more, with prices, hours, dog rules and hygiene ratings, checked October 2026. · 10 min read Food & Drink Dorset Pubs: The Best Pubs and Where to Drink The Tiger Inn in Bridport is CAMRA's 2026 West Dorset winner. Here are 16 Dorset pubs with opening hours, beer, dog rules and hygiene ratings, checked Oct 2026. · 14 min read Council Wessex Mayor: Prime Minister Says Yes, but Gives No Date Andy Burnham told West Dorset's MP he backs a Wessex mayor covering Dorset, BCP, Somerset and Wiltshire. He did not commit to a 2028 election. · 3 min read Veterans Veterans Sought for Brunel Gulf War and Blast Injury Study Two anonymous 15-minute online surveys for UK veterans on blast, head injury and Gulf War illness, plus 150 places in a Brunel blood study. How to take part. · 6 min read Tourism Dorset Museum Wins Gold and Two Silvers at Tourism Awards Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in Dorchester won gold for international tourism and two silvers at the Dorset Tourism Awards in Bournemouth on 22 October. · 4 min read Dorchester Mary Anning Exhibition, Dorchester: 30 Jan to 2 May 2027 Mary Anning: Fossil Hunter runs at Dorset Museum in Dorchester from 30 January to 2 May 2027, curated by Tracy Chevalier, with her only known portrait on show. · 5 min read Poole Poole Museum Needs £10,000 to Keep Wilsher-Mills Masthead A V&A grant of just under £10,000 pays half for Jason Wilsher-Mills' carers masthead. Poole Museum hopes to raise the rest by 3 January, when the show closes. · 4 min read Care homes Christchurch Care Home Holds Diwali for Shashi on 2 Nov Fairmile Grange in Christchurch marks Diwali on Monday 2 November at 2.30pm, inspired by Shashi, a resident with dementia who has been returning to Hindi. · 4 min read 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... Weather Dorset Weather: 7-Day Forecast and Today's Hourly Outlook Dorset weather today: light drizzle, 13°C by day and 10°C overnight, with a 100% chance of rain and winds up to 22 mph. Seven-day forecast, updated every... 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
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.