News in Dorchester

Dorchester Wednesday market operators, Ensors, say they could bring a seven-day market, antiques sales and events centre to the town.

It believes the move could revive the county town market and bring in thousands of visitors.

Enforcement of Dorset Council's dog-related Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) starts today.

The PSPO came into force on January 1, 2021, and during the first month, Dorset Council focused on advice and guidance to dog owners, explaining the new rules.

More than 700 Dorchester pupils were responsible for spreading cheer in care homes over the festive period.

During a rather different Christmas, 720 pupils at St Osmund's Middle School wrote a message on a heart to let those who may have been unable to see family over the festive season to know that they were thinking of them.

Around 8,000 people would have received a vaccination in Dorchester by the end of the week.

This comes after the news that vaccination figures hit a daily record of 600,000 people receiving their first doses in the UK on Saturday.

One of the biggest sculpture exhibitions in the UK is coming to Sculpture by the Lakes this year.

FORM - The Sculpture Exhibition will feature some 200 pieces of both indoor and outdoor sculpture from some of the country's top sculptors with some 100 outdoor exhibits installed across the sculpture park's 26-acres of lakes, rivers, gardens and woodlands.

Income from Dorchester's weekly Wednesday market and the Sunday car boot sales have more than halved in the year to November.

Although the Wednesday market continues to operate the weekend sales have been stopped by Government restrictions.

Claims that a biomass boiler for Dorchester Town Council will add to the town's pollution have been dismissed as nonsense without any facts to back the allegation.

But the statement, from Mayor Richard Briggs, was branded "disgraceful" by former town councillor, Conservative Gerald Duke, at the end of an online town council meeting. His comment was caught as the online meeting closed down.

Bridport Town Council is urging South Dorset MP Richard Drax to 'do the right thing' and pay reparation to the people of Barbados, where his family was slaveholders for 200 years.

Stand Up To Racism has issued an open letter calling for reparation of the Drax Hall Estate in Barbados, currently under the ownership of Mr Drax, to the people of Barbados.

Covid patients from Dorset and Yeovil have been transferred to the Exeter Nightingale unit for treatment.

The transfers are believed to have been made last week and earlier this week although Dorset councillors were unable to get further information from Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group urgent and emergency programme director, Sue Sutton.

Infection rates continue to fall across Dorset but levels are still high and above the South West average.

Public Health Dorset reports there are 1,001 coronavirus cases in the Dorset Council area, compared to 1,175 on January 22, and 2,342 in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council area, compared to 3,138.