To celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, communities are encouraged to start planning events and parties for the special four-day bank holiday weekend.

Her Majesty the Queen will become the first British Monarch to have served for 70 years, having acceded to the throne on February 6 1952.

Celebrations across the country will be taking place from Thursday, June 2 to Sunday, June 5, including street parties and community events.

Town and parish councils will be organising events and the Platinum Jubilee website has an interactive map which will display all the events and activities taking place across the UK.

To make it easier to host your own street party, Dorset Council is waiving the costs of road closure applications in the area, and welcomes residents to apply for a street party road closure. You need to apply six weeks in advance.

Support is also available for communities via a £22 million National Lottery Fund. This has been made available to help communities across the country come together to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee. More information can be found here.

Dorset will also be joining the national beacon lighting programme with beacons being lit across the county to mark the start of the celebratory weekend on June 2. Details will eb published nearer the time.

Councillor Val Pothecary, chairman of Dorset Council, said: "The Queen's Platinum Jubilee is going to be a very special national event and we want as many people as possible to take part in the celebrations.

"As well as the more formal and also organised community events that will take place, we're encouraging people to get in the spirit and put on their own local events - it could be as simple as inviting your family and friends for a party in the garden, or a larger community event such as a street party for the neighbourhood."

To find out how you and your community can celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee on the official platinum jubilee website.

Don't forget to sign up to our newsletter below!

You can submit your own news straight to Dorchester Nub News by using the 'Nub It' button on our home page. This can also be done for events on our What's On page and businesses, groups and organisations on our Local Listings page , also by using the 'Nub It' button.

Please like and follow our online newspaper on your favourite social media channel. You can find us @DorchesterNubNews on Facebook and @DorchesterNub Twitter.