NAOMI Vides is the toast of Dorset swimming after powering to two titles on her first appearance at a national championship. The 11-year-old from Ferndown Otters dominated the girls' 11yrs breaststroke events at the National Age Group Championships
TOP songs from the shows production Beyond The Barricade heads back to Bournemouth later this month for the first of two summer appearances. The production, featuring leading performers from the box-office busting musical Les Miserables, plays a Bank
LIBRARIES are not high on residents' lists of priorities, according to a survey carried out for Dorset County Council as it decides whether to shut down libraries across the county to cut costs. The MORI survey, which aimed to test people's feelings
PLANS to regenerate Christchurch's biggest housing estate have moved a step forward following a widespread survey among some 1,500 householders in the Somerford area. Almost a third of those canvassed by landlords Twynham Housing Association responded
RESIDENTS in Purbeck are being warned to look out for "21st century rag and bone men" posing as charities and recycling companies. Reports have reached the police of leaflets being delivered around Corfe Castle in the past month asking for unwanted
A LITTLE boy who is deaf in both ears will have his hearing restored after his parents won their battle with North Dorset Primary Care Trust. Health officials claimed a cochlear implant in one ear would meet two-year-old Matthew Harvey's clinical needs
A GRIEVING family is seeking answers after the sudden death of a much-loved wife, mother and grandmother at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital. Pamela Brooks, 65, suffered a stroke at her home in Highcliffe at around 10 o'clock on the morning of Sunday
WE drive the route regularly and know every bend and dip. The roads are quieter than in town, there has never been a cyclist around the bend before and so it seems safe to put our foot down. The truth is, it is rarely more dangerous with motorists
ODDLY, my surname is Perkins but my mother has sometimes gone by the name of Gubbins. Not that there is any question of me having been born on the wrong side of the blanket, as they used to say. If you knew my parents you wouldn't dream of suggesting
ELDERLY residents who were rescued by neighbours as fire swept through their nursing home have praised those people who helped them. Those living in Pinehurst Rest Home woke to commotion last week when a lightning strike sparked a fire on a half-built
A YOUNG woman who is raising money for an intensive care unit for babies has spoken of the death of her son, aged just one day. Georgia Chappels and her partner were full of hope when they planned their first child last summer. But when Eddie Chappels
IT TOOK them more than six decades, but they're finally back together. Two ex-WAAFs who served together on an airforce base during the Second World War have met up again for the first time in 63 years. Margaret Bennett, 85, from Boscombe, spent
ELDERLY folk are getting distressed after receiving electricity bills that have been hugely overestimated, says a retirement flats warden. Steve Phelps, who is the scheme manager at the Sandringham Court retirement flats in Bournemouth, says many of
MILLIONS of pounds are being squandered in the NHS South West because a growing number of people fail to turn up for hospital outpatient appointments, it has been revealed. Figures just released for 2004-5 show that a staggering one in 12 appointments
ANGRY beach hut users have received an apology after Bournemouth council chose the start of the summer holidays to redecorate chalets. Families planning a day at the beach were stunned to find their chalets out of action because they were being spruced
ONE of Dorset's best known businessmen and philanthropists has died aged 95. Sam Emberton joint-founded Ace Office Supplies, Bournemouth, with late wife Jessie in 1963. Sam never retired from business. As president of Ace now chaired by son in
PIRATES 49 EASTBOURNE 44 SOMETHING to restore a semblance of a smile, then. But still not the full throttle, thrill-a-minute Pirates, that's for sure. Victory against Eastbourne last night, only a second success in the last eight Elite League
BOSS Sean O'Driscoll believes the additions of Leon Best and Lionel Ainsworth has made Cherries "as strong as we've been for a very long time as an attacking force". The two young strikers yesterday completed their respective loan moves to Dean Court
A NATIONWIDE crackdown against the scourge of mini-motorbike riders was launched yesterday. Home Secretary John Reid announced that the government is to give extra funding to tackle the problem this summer and its Respect Task Force is publishing a
POLICE have appealed for help to find a mobility scooter driver who failed to stop after hitting a blind woman. The 50-year-old victim, Alison Bartlett, suffered a fractured left wrist and has had to put her five-year-old guide dog into temporary care
BOURNEMOUTH'S most prolific car crime offender has been jailed after breaking into the wrong car and straight into a police trap. Graham Hill, 24, held his hands up to smashing his way into 55 cars after police caught him red-handed stealing a satellite
