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

Devolution Wessex Mayor Deal in 'Final Stages', With £8.69m Lined Up Environment Wessex Water Rated 2 Stars Again: 164 Sewage Pollutions What's On The Cobb Lyme Regis: Walk It Safely, Park, and Beaches

Coming up

All The events
  1. Sat 31 Oct Steam and Screams, Swanage Railway Swanage Railway · From £30
  2. Sat 31 Oct Weymouth parkrun 9am · Lodmoor Country Park · Free
  3. Sat 31 Oct The Great Field parkrun, Poundbury 9am · The Great Field · Free
  4. Sat 31 Oct Lyme Regis Halloween Duck Race 12pm · Windsor Terrace, Higher Mill Flats
  5. Sat 31 Oct Easton Methodist Church Heritage Appeal Quiz Night 6pm · Easton Methodist Church · From £5

Latest Dorset news

Politics Dorset MP Wants Ofcom Review Over GB News and Royal Mail Vikki Slade MP asked ministers for a formal review of Ofcom on 29 October, citing GB News, scam calls, rural broadband and post that turns up in bundles. · 7 min read Crime Portland Caravan Fire: Two Arrested, Police Seek Witnesses Police believe a fire that destroyed a caravan in Yeats Road, Portland, at about 1am on 29 October was deliberate. Two people arrested. Quote 55260169390. · 1 min read Dorchester £1,495 Grant Helps Dorchester Mum's Cleaning Firm Double Cailin Lambrechts, 30, set up a Dorchester cleaning firm after leaving an abusive relationship. A £1,495 grant paid for rebranding; she now has four cleaners. · 4 min read Weymouth Town Council Weymouth Beach Gets £75,000 of New Deckchairs and Sunbeds Up to £75,000 of new deckchairs, sunbeds and windbreaks for Weymouth Beach, and a hunt for a watercraft operator for summer 2027. Palestine flag motion fell. · 6 min read Food & Drink Christmas Dinner in Dorset 2026: Where to Book, With Prices Christmas Day lunch at the Dorset pubs here costs £90 to £155 a head, with deposits and deadlines, plus five festive menus from £27. Checked October 2026. · 15 min read What's On Charmouth Fossil Hunting: Tides, Where to Look, the Code Charmouth fossil hunting works best on a falling tide after winter storms. Search the loose shingle, not the cliffs; record rare finds at the centre. · 8 min read Devolution Wessex Mayor: MP Says Summer Bid for Dorset-Only Deal Failed Vikki Slade MP says a Wessex mayor will be elected in 2028, after a summer bid to cut the deal to Dorset and BCP alone. Read the MPs' June letter here. · 6 min read Weymouth Town Council Maiden Street Toilets Shut 2 Nov, Then 50p by Card Weymouth's Maiden Street toilets close on 2 November for about five months. Councillors agreed on 28 October to charge 50p by card when they reopen. · 3 min read Crime West Moors Burglaries: £10,000 of Pokémon Cards Taken Police want doorbell and dashcam footage after four West Moors break-ins between 30 September and 11 October. A safe and £10,000 of Pokémon cards were taken. · 2 min read Food & Drink Afternoon Tea in Dorset: Where to Book Afternoon tea in Dorset costs about £20 to £36 a head at the nine places here, from Sherborne Abbey to Lyme Regis, with notice and deposits, checked October 2026. · 8 min read Days out Days Out in Dorset With Children, Checked October 2026 Dorset days out with children that stay open this winter: Tank Museum, Monkey World, Corfe Castle and 10 more, with prices, under-5s rules and closed dates. · 12 min read What's On Kimmeridge Bay: £6 Toll, Snorkel Trail and Range Walk Dates Kimmeridge Bay costs £6 a car on the private toll road, card only, 8am to dusk. The Wild Seas Centre shuts 2 Nov; the Etches museum stays open. Dogs welcome. · 8 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.