A £10,000 reward has been offered in the hunt for the brutal killer of mum-of-two Heather Barnett. Almost two months since her battered body was discovered by her children, detectives are no closer to tracking down the murderer. They are convinced that
AN MP campaigning for a ban on replica guns has welcomed signals that the government could be poised to act. Bournemouth East Con-servative David Atkinson hopes Labour will also propose banning potentially lethal "soft" firearms such as BB guns. Mr Atkinson
CASH-STRAPPED Dorset County Council is squaring up to the government in its bid for a fairer funding deal for taxpayers. A four-strong all-party delegation is travelling to London on Wednesday for a meeting with Minister Christopher Leslie, when it will
WAS there ever a William Barnes society, commemorating the Dorset dialect poet, that was based in Poole? That's the question being asked by members of the current William Barnes Society. Canon A J Butler, of Wimborne Minster, an admirer of Barnes's poetry
SANDY beaches and traffic jams... To most, the village of Studland is synonymous with summer, be it through the densely-packed seaside or, more recently, the annual Country Fair, but there's a lot more to this unique corner of Purbeck than meets the eye
UNBEATEN Bournemouth southpaw Steve Bendall will come up against his toughest test yet when he defends his IBO Inter-Continental middleweight title against Lee Blundell. The 29-year-old Westbourne-based boxer goes into the ring against the Wigan man on
PORTLAND'S Grove Corner ground stages the most evenly-balanced tie of the round when the Dorset Senior Cup reaches the quarter-final stage tonight, kick-off 7.45pm. The Blues have an attractive home confrontation with their Jewson Wessex League rivals
Dorset & Wilts Division Two South Martock 24 Bridport 7 BRIDPORT lost ground on North Dorset at the top of the Dorset & Wilts Division Two with a surprise defeat against a well drilled Martock side. The Blues started badly in the crisp sunny conditions
Dorset & Wilts Division One Cooper Avon Tyres 13 Weymouth 14 WEYMOUTH emerged triumphant from this Dorset & Wilts Division One thriller at Cooper Avon Tyres. But it was nip and tuck right from the kick off with the lead changing hands no less
BRIDPORT will be dreaming of a tie with the big boys if they can overcome Swanage Town and Herston in the quarter-final of the Dorset Senior Cup at St Mary's Field tonight, kick-off 7.45pm. The Bees could set up a tasty semi-final with either Weymouth
VILLAGER Eileen Laidler today warned of a fatal accident waiting to happen on an icy road near her West Dorset home. She called for quicker visits by gritting lorries and signs urging motor-ists to slow before the blackspot on the edge of Cattistock.
SOUTH Dorset MP Jim Knight presented the first batch of certificates in a buy local campaign to help county food producers. Five firms were given the go-ahead from the county council's trading standards service to carry a Direct from Dorset label on locally-sourced
THE MOTHER of murdered estate agent Tim Robinson has called for the police to be given new stop and search powers. Christine Hills spoke out yesterday after Home Secretary David Blunkett announced that firearms laws are to be tightened following a steep
PARENTS could soon be behind the wheel of school buses in Dorset because of a desperate shortage of coach drivers. County council transport chiefs are backing a new driver recruitment initiative, although they stress prospective drivers will have to reach
FINANCIAL services companies are likely to shed more jobs this year as they continue to cut costs, the CBI has warned. Business volumes fell last quarter for the sector which covers banks, building societies, insurers and stockbrokers. Financial services
WHEN Alistair Darling stood up in the Commons to announce a new wave of road building it was a disappointment - but not a surprise - to find out that yet again Dorset had lost out. Yes, we will have the new Poole Bridge but that owes much more to local
NEW Year's festivities came to a horrible halt for Heather and David Snow when they discovered something nasty in the woodshed. They had noticed two gruesome looking creepy-crawlies hanging from a web some weeks earlier. But the real shock came when they
Dorset & Wilts Division Two South PUDDLETOWN 20 WARMINSTER 17 INJURIES and unavailabilities saw Puddletown go into this Dorset & Wilts Division Two South clash with an unfamiliar front row. But it didn't stop the Villagers recording a much-needed
Powergen South-West Division One East Dorchester 23 Amersham and Chiltern 0 Dorchester welcomed the New Year with a performance and result that was far better than they had achieved in the whole of the previous 12 months. Apart from five minutes near
SPEEDWAY'S return to South Dorset stepped up a gear today after plans were unveiled for a new track at Buckland Ripers near Chickerell. The proposals, which have been submitted to West Dorset District Council, include a 270-metre track, a new access road
DORCHESTER seek solace in the Senior Cup at the Avenue Stadium tonight after their worst run in the league for more than two years, kick-off 7.45pm. They will be looking to end a sequence of three league defeats - which have seen their Dr Martens Eastern
GEOFF Butler has issued a predictable warning ahead of holders Weymouth's Dorset Senior Cup quarter final tie against minnows Cranborne at the Wessex Stadium tonight, kick-off 7.45pm. "Disregard them at your peril," said the Terras boss as he prepares
AROUND 600 children at a Wimborne school have been given an extended Christmas holiday because their mobile classrooms are surrounded by floodwater. It is the second time in two years Allenbourn Middle School has been forced to tell pupils to stay at
THE Natural History Museum is considering opening an attraction in Dorchester based on the Jurassic Coast. Hopes are high that the London museum will become the anchor complex linking a series of visitor and interpretation centres along the coast. A Dorset
TWO village publicans are showing there's no bar to learning by offering courses in the three Rs as their customers sup a pint. The Piddle Inn, in Piddletrenthide, and the Swan Inn at Abbotsbury are also inviting their customers to brush up on their personal
AN ELDERLY couple living near a new housing development claim heavy-handed builders knocked down part of their fence to get access to a site. They say the workers used the shortcut to access land between Coombe Avenue and Larkspur Close in the Lodmoor
Families are demanding improvements to the Buxton Road bridge at Rodwell in Weymouth to protect pedestrians from the traffic. Residents are often clipped by car wing mirrors and dog walkers say their pets are terrified of walking over the narrow bridge
A GREEN campaigner is today at the centre of a row after he criticised council chiefs for failing to make transport improvements in Wey-mouth and Portland. Transport 2000 regional officer David Redgewell, who regularly speaks out on transport issues,
DORCHESTER fundraisers handed over an amazing £5,000 towards a special unit for severely disabled children. The League of Friends of the Dorchester Hospitals managed to raise the money by selling confectionery, newspapers and stationery around the wards
THE government's £500 million initiative to help farmers recover from the foot and mouth crisis penalises those letting their land, warn accountants. Tax changes are needed for the initiative to be successful, warn Bournemouth accountants Saffery Champness
POLICE in Christchurch are hunting a robber who temporarily blinded his elderly victim, before stealing her handbag. The incident happened on Saturday as the 79-year-old woman was walking towards a block of flats in Waterford Place, Highcliffe. As she
CHERRIES are on a collision course to meet former manager Tony Pulis and his Stoke City side in the FA Cup - should Sean O'Driscoll's troops overcome Crewe in next week's replay. Yesterday's fourth round draw handed Pulis's Potters a home tie on January
