Poole
Poole students record Graham Kendrick song in Dorchester
Poole students and young adults with disabilities sang, signed and danced on Joy oh Joy in Dorchester, a song Graham Kendrick wrote for Shaftesbury.
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Christmas
Dorset Christmas lights switch-ons: 2026 dates and times
Lyme Regis switches on first, on 21 November. Weymouth and Swanage share 28 November, Sherborne lights its tree on 6 December. Times, places and gaps.
Housing
Dorset homelessness: £1.1m secured for prevention work
Dorset Council has secured £1.1m of government money for earlier help before people lose their homes, and new accommodation for long-term rough sleepers. The county's main homelessness grant for 2026-27 is £3.4m.
Ferndown
Victoria Road Ferndown revamp starts Monday 7 September
Ten weeks of work on Ferndown's shopping street start 7 September. The road and all shops stay open, with planters, seating and parking changes coming.
Dorset Council
Dorset ward boundaries: 84 councillors, comment by 9 Nov
The Boundary Commission proposes 84 Dorset councillors in 58 wards, with most boundaries changing. Residents have until 9 November 2026 to comment.
Business
New companies in Dorchester: 26 registered in August
A festival company named for the Dorset Ooser, a pizza business, two personal trainers and six building firms are among 26 companies registered in DT1 and DT2 last month.
Energy
Dorset solar scheme: register free by 25 September
Dorset Council's group-buying round with Switch Together is free to join until 25 September, with no obligation. Last year's scheme helped over 200 households cut bills.
Water
Dorset Hosepipe Ban: Your Bill Decides, Not Your Postcode
Wessex Water and South West Water have banned hosepipes. Bournemouth Water has not, so check who bills you. The 11 banned uses and the £1,000 fine.
House prices
Dorset house prices: £325,410 average, up 1.6% in a year
The June figure is up £5,187 on a year ago but down on the month, 196th of 295 English areas for growth. Semis and terraces rose 2.6%, flats fell, and the 2022 peak is still £26,717 away.
Arts
Dorset culture fund: £486,000 a year, apply by 5 October
Round 6 of Dorset Council's revenue fund offers museums, theatres and arts groups £5,000 to £50,000 a year to March 2030. 28 organisations hold the current awards; they all run out in March 2027.
Local Info
Dorset bin collection days: no bank holiday changes
Dorset collects on every bank holiday. Only Christmas and New Year move. Garden waste is £74, runs all winter, and its dates are not on your round calendar.
Local Info
Parking in Dorset: 70p for 30 minutes, free after 6pm
Most Dorset Council car parks charge 8am to 6pm and nothing after. Weymouth seafront bays cost £7.30 overnight, and Portland's Chesil charges round the clock.
Local Info
Dorset council tax 2026/27: £2,625.43 before your parish
Band D is £2,625.43 before any parish precept. Sturminster Newton adds £303.52 on top, 28 parishes add nothing, and two percentages on the council's page do not match its own figures.
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.