NO FURTHER action will be taken to restore access to Sandsfoot Beach, councillors have decided. A special meeting was called tonight after a petition calling for access to be restored and another petition to protect Weymouth's Greenhill Gardens
CASTLE Cove junior sailor Alex McFarlane was selected to take part in the prestigious RYA Eric Twiname Championships. Having endured testing conditions with strong squalls on day one, the concluding day of the championships brought similar conditions
A DRIVER was taken ill at the wheel this evening. The A353 was partially blocked at Poxwell near to the A352 junction at around 5.30pm whilst paramedics worked. A Dorset Police spokesman said the driver’s condition was not thought to be serious
GREAT Britain’s three-day Laser Europa Cup event drew to a close amid glorious racing conditions at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy. Battling against a light and shifty breeze on the opening day of the regatta, conditions slowly
Dorchester residents are invited to view plans to relocate Damers First School to Poundbury next week. The Echo revealed plans for the new school building in March. As part of Dorset County Council’s programme to provide additional school places
A CONFERENCE highlighting so-called 'honour' violence and forced marriage takes place in Dorset today. Charity Karma Nirvana and the police's Forced Marriage Unit have teamed-up to organise the roadshow, which will be attended by more than 550
A CONCERT held in memory of a West Dorset man who died following a battle with cancer is set to become an annual fundraiser. Paul Wicken, 36, died last year just days before the event in aid of the Weldmar Hospicecare Trust took place. Colleagues
The church of Saint Simon and St Jude in Winterborne Monkton is holding a flower festival with musical accompaniment. The festival on the weekend of Saturday, June 21 and Sunday, June 22 will have a theme of ‘marriage with music’ with flowers arranged
POLICE have made an appeal after expensive jewellery was stolen from an elderly resident’s home. Items described of ‘high sentimental and monetary value’ were taken at some point in the last 15 months from a house in Abbotsbury Road, Weymouth.
DORSET will be hit again by further strikes by firefighters. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has announced two further strike dates as part of an ongoing dispute with the government over pensions. The dates of the walkouts are Thursday, June
A PORTLAND pub raised more than £500 for Portland Bill Coastwatch. Gina Long, landlady of The Eight Kings at Southwell, Portland, held a race night in aid of the charity recently. Tug Summers was in charge of the betting and the races and made
MEMBERS of the Dorset Gardens Trust celebrated 25 years of helping to conserve landscapes and promoting gardening in the county. A party was held at Minterne Magna, which gave members the opportunity to revisit the site of the DGT’s first meeting
THE prestigious Bridport & Lyme Regis News General Knowledge trophy was this year won by a team from the Oddfellows Arms, North Allington. In second place came the Conservative Club “A” team and third equal were the Oddfellows Cricket Club
A SURPRISING number of adults don’t know how to read and write. And that is why Mike Parker, president of Weymouth Rotary Club, chose Read Easy to receive a £500 cheque to help with its good works. The local Read Easy group offers anyone over
SWANAGE Sea Rowing Club celebrated its new £350,000 boathouse by hosting the largest regatta in its history. Following the hotly-contested event, which attracted eight clubs from across the South West, the home club clenched the title as overall
Have you recently undergone or perhaps are due to undergo chemo-therapy or radio-therapy? If so then a new support group has been set up, not only for the patients having treatment but for their family and carers. The group’s first meeting will be
TWO youngsters from Maiden Newton are celebrating after completing an epic charity cycle and smashing their fundraising target. Brother and sister East and Phulmaya rode 80 miles from Bath back to their home village to raise funds for Cancer Reseach
A HOMEGROWN award scheme focusing on the good works of Dorset people is being launched. Details of the new Dorset Award, which would be ‘given occasionally to individuals considered to have made an extraordinary contribution to the life of Dorset
POLICE and ambulance crews were called to a collision scene outside the Dorset County Museum in High West Street, Dorchester, this afternoon. A spokesman for the South Western Ambulance Service said that crews were called to reports of a two vehicle
BRIDPORT is braced for weeks of traffic misery as road and water works cause chaos in the town centre. Traders have spoken out about concerns that the works – expected to last three weeks – could harm their businesses at the start of the crucial
CAMPAIGNS highlighting the importance of two Weymouth beauty spots are to be thrashed out in council debates tonight. Efforts to protect Greenhill Gardens and to restore access to Castle Cove beach have prompted locals to start petitions to build
WEYMOUTH’S Quangle Wangle Choir is holding its first concert of the season on Saturday, June 7 at Litton Cheney Hall starting at 7.30pm. The concert will feature a varied programme of music that ranges from spiritual and folk songs to Carole King
THERE is the chance to see talent from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School on tour this month. Sauce for the Goose is coming to Frampton Village Hall on June 28 and The Exchange in Sturminster Newton on June 29, courtesy of Artsreach. The theatre
YOUNG men in Dorset are being blackmailed in a new scam where fraudsters threaten to send explicit videos to friends and family. A Beaminster man and another from Weymouth have fallen victim to the scam in the past week – and there could be countless
AN ELDERLY woman who was sleeping rough on Weymouth seafront has been re-homed. Calls were made by Weymouth Salvation Army to help the 79-year-old who was in urgent need of shelter and medical help. It is understood that she was forced to leave
A cyclist aged 78, who was killed in a crash, may have been trying to retrieve his baseball cap, an inquest was told. James Edwards’ hat was blown off seconds before the impact which left him with fatal head and spinal injuries, Dorset Coroner
A BRIDPORT butchers will be featured in a television series. RJ Balson and Son, Britain’s oldest butchers, were visited by presenter Janet Street-Porter and chef Brian Turner on Friday. The pair, who are filming for BBC’s A Taste Of Britain
WEST Dorset is once again the star as the cameras returned for filming of the second series of Broadchurch. The star-studded cast and crew set up their production base in the car park next to the West Bay Hotel yesterday morning to start filming
In the Echo on Tuesday, June 3, on pages 6 and 7 there was an article about ‘Boy’ Male, who commanded a Tank Landing Craft at Omaha Beach on D-Day. After the war, Boy Male retained the white ensign from his ship, and this is on display at Portland
Is apathy the only reason that 63% of those eligible to vote did not turn out and do so in the recent local and European elections? ‘Apathy is the winner’ (Letters, June 3). Could it be that nothing ever changes no matter who is elected?
Dorset Police is today supporting a global public awareness campaign to highlight the dangers of organised crime. The campaign #TurnBackCrime has been launched by Interpol and aims to help the public better understand organised crime networks operating
TOMORROW marks the 70th anniversary of D-Day - a day that changed the outcome of the Second World War and the course of history. Ten years ago we spoke to many of the heroes of D-Day to mark the 60th anniversary celebrations. Many have sadly passed
TWO Royal Navy warships helped to find a yacht in difficulty near Portland Bill. It came after a very weak urgency broadcast was heard at around 9.30pm on Wednesday. The 38-foot yacht ‘Puma’, which had six people on board, had lost steering
A ROW has erupted over a lack of action by authorities to deal with travellers who are camping illegally at the Weymouth park and ride site. Dorset County Council is allowing families to stay for a week in the car park at its Mount Pleasant park
RACING stepped up a gear on the third day of the Sail for Gold Regatta yesterday, with sailors revelling in big breeze, strong gusts and spells of sunshine at this third leg of the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup series. Wind speeds of
HE MAY be in the twilight of his career, but Dean Cosker still dreams of playing Test cricket for England. And the Weymouth-born spin bowler has done his chances no harm with an impressive start to the new County Championship season. The Glamorgan
