Dorset · Local news you can trust
Blandford St Mary is getting a new village hall with £456,780 of developer money, plus £85,000 for its school nursery. Six more Dorset awards were published.
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Housing
Dorset Rough Sleepers: 32 Places Planned by Christmas
About 25 people sleep rough in Dorset, most in Weymouth, Bridport and Lyme Regis. The council plans 32 places by Christmas, six of them on a Weymouth bus.
Business
Dorset Innovation Park Adds 125 Jobs in a Year
Dorset Innovation Park near Wool added 125 full-time jobs in a year. Yeovil College plans a defence skills centre there, if ministers approve the money.
Heritage
Tracy Chevalier Backs Bid to Save Dorset's 96% Full Archive
The archive stores at Dorset History Centre in Dorchester are 96% full. Novelist Tracy Chevalier narrates a film for the £5.28m project to expand them.
Crime
Sherborne Burglary: Police Appeal After Cheap Street Shop Raid
Dorset Police want CCTV and dashcam footage after an antique silver shop on Cheap Street, Sherborne, was broken into at 3.20am on 23 October and stock taken.
Animals
Dorset Council Fines Two Unlicensed Dog Breeders
Dorset Council fined two unlicensed dog breeders and a home boarder £4,400 in October. Anyone earning £1,000 a year from animals may need a licence.
What's On
Cerne Abbas Giant: Where to See It, and How Old It Really Is
The Cerne Abbas Giant is best seen from the National Trust viewing area, not the A352 lay-by. The walk, the bus, dogs, and the 2021 late Saxon dating.
Money
£100 Energy Payment: 134,580 Dorset Homes in Bands A to D
About 134,580 homes in the Dorset Council area are in council tax bands A to D, which get the £100 Household Energy Payment from January 2027.
Parking
Dorset Parking Charges 2027: £1.20 Hour Could Hit £2.10
Dorset Council plans town-by-town parking charges from April 2027: one hour in town rises from £1.20 to up to £2.10, and five free car parks could start charging.
What's On
Hengistbury Head: £2.70 Winter Parking, No Land Train
Hengistbury Head's winter parking is £2.70 for 2 hours and the land train is off until April. The walk to Mudeford Spit, the Double Dykes, dogs and the ferry.
Christmas
Christmas Shopping in Dorset: 20 Independents Worth the Drive
We checked 20 independent Dorset shops, from Goulds in Dorchester to Folde in Shaftesbury, for opening hours and what they sell. Updated November 2026.
Christmas
Where to Buy a Christmas Tree in Dorset 2026 With Prices
We checked 6 places to buy a real Christmas tree in Dorset, from Trinity Street in Dorchester to Moors Valley, for prices and dates. Updated November 2026.
Crime
Dorchester Appeal: Woman Found Injured Off Herringston Road
A woman in her 60s was found with potentially life-changing injuries in an alleyway off Herringston Road, Dorchester, on 29 October. Police want witnesses and footage.
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.