Dorset & district · Local news you can trust
Wessex Water banned hosepipes from 18 August and South West Water from 8 August. Bournemouth Water has not. What is banned, what is not, and the £1,000 fine.
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Housing
Dorset Housing Register: renew within 20 days or lose it
Miss the 20-day renewal window and your application closes. Half of the 6,921 people on Dorset's housing register have not renewed. New bands start 1 September.
Air Ambulance
Dorset Air Ambulance: name the new helicopter by 25 August
Entries to name Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance's second helicopter close at 23:59 on Tuesday 25 August. The winner gets a behind-the-scenes airbase tour.
Fire
Dorset fire service declares major incident over wildfires
The fire service declared a major incident at 8pm on 13 August, citing the red wildfire alert and 277 outdoor fires in July. What is banned, and what to do.
Roads
Weymouth Esplanade to close overnight from 28 September
Dorset Council will shut the Esplanade 8pm to 6am from 28 September to 17 October for resurfacing, with Wessex Roundabout to follow. The full autumn list.
Business
Weymouth Bay Coffee Co at Lodmoor goes into liquidation
The company behind the Lodmoor Country Park cafe entered creditors' voluntary liquidation on 20 July. Who to contact if the Weymouth cafe owes you money.
Local Info
Dorset house prices: £326,381 average, town by town
The Dorset average is £326,381, still 7.3% below its 2022 peak. Our read of 5,528 sales gives medians for 19 towns, from Portland to St Leonards.
Local Info
Dorset trains to London: 2h07 Gillingham, 2h51 Weymouth
Gillingham reaches Waterloo in 2h07 and costs £8,212 a year. Weymouth takes 2h51 and costs £10,260. Times, fares and first trains for every Dorset station.
Local Info
Dorset Roadworks: A35 Shut Nightly to 5 September
The A35 shuts 8pm to 6am between Stinsford and Bere Regis every weeknight until 5 September, and a 12-week job at a Weymouth junction starts on 7 September.
Local Info
Things to do in Dorset: free Durdle Door, £15 car park
What 10 Dorset days out cost a family of four, from free at Maiden Castle to £77.50 on the Swanage Railway. Every price checked at the venue in August 2026.
Local Info
Dorset planning: 2.53 years of housing land, not 5
Dorset can show 2.53 years of housing land against the five required, and its Local Plan will not be adopted until 2029. Consultation opens 21 September.
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.
Every fact is linked to the document it came from.