YOU’LL be pleased to know that I’m a graduate of Bournemouth’s “hopeless” journalism school. So are several of my colleagues, as well as former classmates who now work for the BBC, Sky, Bloomberg, countless national magazine titles, news websites, radio
When Frankie Boyle said he was leaving Mock the Week, everyone thought it would be the end of the show. It couldn’t continue without its controversial comedian. None of the other comedians could hold the show together. People would stop watching the show
It’s been a good year for Kevin Bridges which really kick-started last year when most of the British nation first saw him on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow. Since then he’s been on numerous TV panel and stand up shows, sold out entire runs at the
SHOPPER numbers have continued to fall in Bournemouth and Poole town centres. The figures came at the October meeting of the Bournemouth chamber of trade. The council uses automatic cameras to record the number of people on key streets over a 24-hour
A RESPECTED Poole yachtsman, who won his first race at Parkstone Yacht Club in 1935, has passed away aged 90. Len Cox, who met Lawrence of Arabia as a child, established himself as a boat designer and marine surveyor during the 1950s.
PROPOSALS to transform key sites across Bournemouth town centre have been approved and will now go out to public consultation. The council has indicated what type and level of development it would like to see on 30 sites across the town, including
A TEENAGE driver involved in a road smash at Brockenhurst is still seriously ill in hospital, but his condition is no longer described as life-threatening. The 17-year-old was driving south when his Volkswagen Polo was in collision with a bus
OXJAM Bournemouth's Takeover Event is coming - three days, seven venues and more than 40 bands and djs - and we've got ten wristbands for the whole event to give away. If you're a budding photographer, we've got an official snappers wristband
Enthusiasm and aspiration among the 14 new Young Enterprise companies is high as each business starts to research and develop their innovative products. So far fifteen schools have entered pupils in to the business challenge. Each company is
TWO Dorset marines who are taking part in a Forrest Gump-inspired coast-to-coast run across America have reached the half-way point. The Royal Marines, Corporal Lloyd Fenner, 29, and Jamie Jobson, aged 24, are part of a six-man team, consisting of American
BOURNEMOUTH’S world-renowned conservationist Jane Goodall had a chance meeting with a team of Dorset charity fund-raisers while both were on ambitious world tours. Dr Goodall is travelling the world to mark the 50th anniversary of the start
THIS timely autumn cocktail is just the thing to warm the cockles on chilly nights. Dubbed Nutty Alexander, the beverage comes courtesy of Liam Savage, manager of Penn Central in Penn Hill. 35ml brandy 25ml chocolate liqueur
GLASWEGIAN comic Kevin Bridges had Poole's Lighthouse in fits of laughter when his tour hit the town on Wednesday night. Currently travelling the UK the 23-year-old funny man is fast becoming a TV regular with slots on Mock the Week and 8 Out of 10
A REPORT into the Great Dorset Steam Fair has attracted criticism from residents. Visiting the controversial five-day Fair on behalf of Dorset Police last month, Ron Cox found it to be ‘well run’, with excellent results and no reported incidents
POLICE are keen to speak to this man after an attack which left a 31-year-old Poole man with a two-inch cut to his face. As part of their investigation into the incident, which took place outside Walkabout in Old Christchurch Road, Bournemouth
THE land train is set to be extended in Boscombe and Bournemouth in a bid to boost trade and tourism Bournemouth Council has announced. If experiments are successful the land train could run between Boscombe seafront and the Precinct catering
ONE of the UK's biggest police forces will Twitter every incident it deals with for the next 24 hours. Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), wants the public, and politicians, to see what his officers deal with on
Families, children, community groups, individuals and local MPs are joining forces this month to do something spectacular, and I am encouraging your readers to do the same. I want family and friends to spend time together and volunteer a little to benefit
HEARTLESS raiders have targeted a Poole charity leaving a trail of damage in their wake. Chestnut Nursery in Kingland Road, Poole, was targeted overnight on Tuesday. Staff turned up to work yesterday morning to find the doors wrenched off the potting
TRAGIC schoolboy Chris Hall will be honoured at a charity event for diabetes this weekend. The six-year-old was found dead alongside his dad, Chris, at their house in Parkstone in August. Little Chris, known to most as Loy, was diabetic
THE Pharmacy Department at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital has recruited three new high tech members of staff. Three robots have been installed within the department as part of an eight month project to improve pharmacy services for patients
Another revisted dollop of chocolate based delight - and this time it's the amazingly named Warm Chocolate Nonsense, courtesy of Anthony Worrall Thompson... Warm Chocolate Nonsense 250g/9oz dark chocolate, (55-70%) broken into small pieces
Council leader Peter Charon rightly calls for zero tolerance to littering (Have Your Say, October 12). The Plastiki Expedition ended on July 26. The Plastiki craft, made from 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and powered by renewables, covered 8,000
Last week Poole council announced it was to withdraw the subsidy for hot meals for the vulnerable residents of the town. Yet again I question what they are up to. They are prepared to spend money on surveys for a pyramid sculpture in Baiter, concrete
I see that the Borough of Poole’s latest aim is to withdraw the subsidy from the 200 vulnerable people who receive hot lunches from Agincare. I would find it very interesting to know how many working lunches are provided by the council for staff or
Jack Loveland is incorrect and misleading the reader in almost all his assertions regarding the campaign against the new Waitrose store in Wimborne (Have Your Say, October 4). It is true that the new store was given planning consent. This was contrary
HENRY the calf, who thinks he’s a dog, continues to cause a stir online. The four-and-a-half month old was featured in the Daily Echo, earlier this year, after he was abandoned by his mother then taken in my a Swange farmer. He was close
In reply to Mr Hamilton-Warwick (Have Your Say, October 10) regarding the Bournemouth town centre master plan, an empty car parking space today can’t be sold tomorrow and surface car parks have 93 million miles of headroom. Even full car parks offer
THE name might make it sound about as interesting as a public reading of the Greater Manchester phone directory. But this year’s Comprehensive Spending Review is going to affect all of us. The event – which involves the Treasury announcing
AMOR Vincit Omnia – or Love Conquers All, as the saying goes, though I have never been especially convinced of that. This may be partly due to the fact I don’t have a heart, according to some of my colleagues. They told me this because I didn
TRIBUTES have now been released to a Poole-based marine and “doting father and husband” who was killed in Afghanistan this summer. Corporal Seth Stephens is thought to have been a member of the elite Special Boat Service – the Royal Marines
The South West Region has a proud history of ensuring the defence and security of our nation. Our region has been a base for our armed forces and support services for generations and we have led the world in developing and manufacturing state-of-the-art
A CHILEAN former miner who lives in Poole has told of his feelings at watching his countrymen emerge from a mine after 69 days trapped underground. Tito Bustos, 60, told the Echo he had been watching the events at Chile’s San Jose mine unfold on TV,
A SCHOOLGIRL shown an adult movie by a stranger on his mobile phone has helped police construct an e-fit of a man who approached her. Two girls aged 12 and 13 were approached by a man as they sat on a ledge to the rear of St John’s Church in Ashley Road
Gliding onto the stage on roller blades, Julian Clary starts his show the way he means to go on. Within minutes he’s got a man from the audience dancing attendance at his feet and he’s regaling the crowd with tales that will not be appearing in a family
A YOUNG mum has told how she watched in horror as an out-of-control car crashed into her baby’s buggy, catapulting it into the air. Jayne Critchell has spoken of her relief after her three-month-old daughter escaped with a bruise on her chin
The Stradivarius cello played by Steven Isserlis also took a bow at the end of his performance, its tonal qualities lighting the aural experience. Yet it was the magical artistry of Isserlis that shone incandescently in Tchaikovsky’s Variations
A PERMANENT ice rink in Bournemouth cannot come too soon for the Smith Family. Ben, 16, takes to the ice 60 miles away in Basingstoke at 4.30am to pursue his dream of being a figure skater and still makes it back to Bourne-mouth in time for
A YOUNG mum-of-two will graduate next month with the highest mark ever achieved on any of Bournemouth University’s computing courses. Helen Paget, 25, has also been named winner of this year’s British Graduate 100 Award for IT and Computing. Sherry
AFTER more years than I care to count, I’m contemplating a major change in my daily routine. I struggle to remember a time when I didn’t wake up to the Today programme on the radio alarm. It’s certainly been the first thing I’ve heard
JASON Doyle slammed in the first Pirates paid maximum of his career and quicky thanked boss Matt Ford for making it possible. The Aussie ace had been off the boil for about a month after dislocating his shoulder in a moto-cross fall. But he was back
MANAGER Wayne Lockey saw Ringwood Town crash out of their final cup competition on Tuesday – and then put out the flags at Long Lane. Lockey believes Town’s involvement on no fewer than four different fronts has come as an unwelcome distraction to their
INJURY victim Harry Arter is itching for a high-profile return at Sheffield Wednesday after vowing to use his enforced lay off to come back stronger. The creative midfielder started Cherries’ League One opener at former club Charlton Athletic but then
TIRED – that was Eddie Mitchell’s initial impression of Cherries’ home when he arrived at Dean Court. “It needed livening up. It still needs a lot of work doing on it to keep it to the standard it should be,” he says, sat in his busy office
