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

Environment Broadstone Climate Film: 15% of Dorset Rivers in Good Health Dorset Dorset Mind Joins Solent Mind: Services Carry On as Usual Food hygiene Dorset Food Hygiene: Lytchett Matravers Café Rated 2

Coming up

All The events
  1. Wed 4 Nov Dorchester Wednesday Market Fairfield Market
  2. Wed 4 Nov From Peterloo to the Great War: 1819 to 1919 in a Trilogy of Novels, a talk by Brent Shore 7.30pm · Tolpuddle Old Chapel · Free
  3. Thu 5 Nov Poole Museum first birthday party Poole Museum
  4. Thu 5 Nov Weymouth Bonfire Night and Fireworks 5pm · Weymouth Beach
  5. Thu 5 Nov Dorchester Rugby Club Fireworks 5.30pm · Dorchester RFC · From £7

Latest Dorset news

Dorset New Arbor Vitae Fund Puts £50,000 Into Dorset Small Groups A new Dorset charity, the Arbor Vitae Foundation, is putting £50,000 through Dorset Community Foundation for small-group grants and college bursaries. · 3 min read What's On Abbotsbury Swannery: Shut Until March, Cygnets From May Abbotsbury Swannery closes for winter on 1 November and reopens in mid-March. Cygnets hatch from early May; swan feeds are at noon and 4pm. Tickets and rules. · 6 min read Sherborne Leweston School Will Not Reopen: Places Offered From 2 Nov Leweston School near Sherborne has closed for good at half term. Every pupil has been offered a place at an Inspired Learning Group school from 2 November. · 3 min read What's On Portland Bill: Lighthouse Climb, Pulpit Rock and Parking Portland Bill: climb the 41m lighthouse (1.1m height rule), see Pulpit Rock and the 1844 obelisk, park in the Crown Estate car park, and stay off the ledges. · 7 min read Portland Portland Roadworks: Road Closures and Traffic Orders Near Portland Portland roadworks: Weston Road (from 20 Nov) and every other traffic order within 3 km, checked each morning with the council's notice linked. Weymouth Dogs on Weymouth Beach 6pm to 6am? Cabinet Decides 10 Nov Dorset councillors want dogs on leads allowed on Weymouth Beach from 6pm to 6am in summer. Weymouth Town Council officers call it risky and want it stopped. · 5 min read Sherborne Loscombe Crossroads: A30 Closure to Stay, Say by 11 Dec Dorset Council wants to keep Loscombe Crossroads on the A30 near Sherborne shut for good. Reopening would cost £1m to £15m. Survey closes 11 December. · 5 min read Devolution Wessex Mayor Deal in 'Final Stages', With £8.69m Lined Up The Budget puts a Wessex mayoral deal in its final stages and pencils in £8.69m for 2027-28. A public consultation comes next. No election date yet. · 3 min read Environment Wessex Water Rated 2 Stars Again: 164 Sewage Pollutions Wessex Water, which supplies most of Dorset, is rated 'requires improvement' for 2025, with 164 sewage pollution incidents against a target of 68. · 3 min read What's On The Cobb Lyme Regis: Walk It Safely, Park, and Beaches The Cobb at Lyme Regis is a Grade I listed harbour wall with no railings. How to walk it safely, Granny's Teeth, the car parks and the beaches either side. · 7 min read 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
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.