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

Council Wessex Mayor: Prime Minister Says Yes, but Gives No Date Veterans Veterans Sought for Brunel Gulf War and Blast Injury Study Tourism Dorset Museum Wins Gold and Two Silvers at Tourism Awards

Coming up

All The events
  1. Sun 25 Oct Albi & Us family activity session 11.30am · Hotel du Vin Poole · Free
  2. Sun 25 Oct The Picture of Dorian Gray: A New Musical 5.30pm · Weymouth Pavilion · From £25
  3. On now to 31 Oct Bincombe Bumps Pumpkins, October Pumpkin Festival Bincombe Bumps · Free
  4. On now to 25 Oct Pumpkins and Fun on the Farm, Dewflock Farm Dewflock Farm · From £6.50
  5. On now to 1 Nov Flying Scotsman at the Swanage Railway Swanage Station · From £29.95

Latest Dorset news

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... Local Info Dorset Weather: 7-Day Forecast and Today's Hourly Outlook Dorset weather today: light drizzle, 12°C by day and 10°C overnight, with a 100% chance of rain and winds up to 26 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 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
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.