THE LOCAL government website dorsetforyou.com has been redesigned three times in the last five years and costs more than £350,000 annually, according to figures released in response to Freedom of Information requests. Questions were sent to councils across the country by The Daily Telegraph and PeoplePerHour.com, and the nationwide results were published this week. Birmingham [...]

A RESPECTED travel writer has protested to West Dorset District Council about planners’ refusal to allow the Downhouse Café at Eype to continue. Brian Jackman has travelled the world for 40 years and one of his favourite haunts is Nikki and Dean Exton’s café on National Trust farmland at Higher Eype. Mr Jackman said: “I find it [...]

A NEW training centre could be set up for young people in West Dorset if a bid for European funding is successful. The aim is to get 16-25 year-olds developing business ideas that will improve the local environment. Ros Kayes, the director of Bridport Local Area Skills Training (BLAST) has asked the European Rural Development [...]

A VISIONARY scheme putting West Dorset at the forefront of architectural and environmental education is bursting with new life. Hooke Park near Beaminster already boasts some of the most extraordinary buildings in Britain (see video), discussed by architects all over the world. Now the Architectural Association, which owns the 350-acre site, has been given outline [...]

First things first ONLY the village of Walditch near Bridport boasts a real place called Jellyfields. It’s a 3-hectare Local Nature Reserve off Lower Walditch Lane, with grass, woodland, stream and small pond and it’s managed for West Dorset District Council by Dorset County Council’s Countryside Service. The NEWS is that a resurfaced path is [...]

WEST Dorset District Council’s controversial plans for a new HQ in Dorchester have gone out to tender. The council today published a notice inviting construction companies to bid for the job of building a new 4-storey office block, library and adult education centre on the Charles Street site in Dorchester town centre. The value of [...]

ABOUT 80 people went to an open day to find out more about affordable homes being built in Bridport by Magna Housing Association. Bridport couple Stephen Courtney and Geraldine Collins (pictured above) were among those who looked through the plans for 17 shared ownership properties at Dibdin View, at Flaxhayes in North Allington. Mr Courtney [...]

LINDSAY BROOKS is to leave Bridport Arts Centre in September after three years as Director. Ms Brooks said she was proud of her record and now felt it was time to move on. “We’re in a healthier state financially, we’re artistically more vibrant and we have started a film festival,” she said. Indeed, when we [...]

A FORMER dairy farm could become a new household recycling centre and waste transfer station for the Bridport area. Lilac Farm, which lies just east of Bridport off the A35, is to be evaluated in depth by Dorset County Council’s independent planning consultants, Nicholas Pearson Associates. The county council has spent years – and hundreds of thousands of [...]

FORTY-FIVE jobs will be created in Dorchester if planning permission is given for a new 76-bed budget hotel instead of flats. The developers of Brewery Square were planning quite soon to start building a block of 48 apartments above shops and a basement car park. But an offer came in for the space that was [...]