A SWANAGE trucker is fighting government plans which could leave historic Wareham Forest sold off to the highest bidder. Stephanie Legg is determined to highlight the controversial proposals, which could affect England’s entire 258,000-hectare public
A Boscombe resident says he is being threatened with an ASBO by Bournemouth Council for exercising his civil liberties. Gary Sherborne who plans to stand as an independent councillor in May, is said to have filmed people against their will
A BATTLE is looming over plans to shut a respite home that provides vital breaks to people who care for those with learning disabilities in the New Forest. Fernmount House is a five bedroom respite care unit in the grounds of New Forest Day Services
A CONVICTED sex offender who molested a schoolboy in a Bournemouth convenience store has been jailed for 18 months. Shop assistant Kanapathy Veerasingham admitted sexually assaulting the 15-year-old, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, at the
Canford Heath was underwater when I last rode here with the Ride group some four weeks ago. With painful memories of a collision with a metal post and an evening sliding through the thick mud still fresh in my mind, I begin the evening on fresh
THE severely wounded man chuckled and waggled his bloody leg stump over my jeans. He was the ‘survivor of a suicide attack’ on Salisbury plain and we were crammed into the back of a Mastiff armoured truck. The missing leg was real – the result of a
FORMER Bournemouth East MP David Atkinson is urging people not to ignore symptoms of ill-health after he was diagnosed with bowel cancer. The 70-year-old retired politician is now recovering from an operation at Poole Hospital to remove the diseased
The commitment of Poole residents to being green is to be tested by a proposal to charge for garden waste collection. Borough of Poole is to consult residents, including the 22,000 households whose green bins are currently collected free, if they would
AN upmarket nightclub that closed during the recession is being turned into flats. Be Bar in Bournemouth town centre used to be known as 2020, and had a luxury VIP lounge and sets from DJs like Judge Jules and Trevor Nelson. Developer
ELIZABETH Reed was in foster care and she needed help. She wanted someone to talk to about her schoolwork and advice on being at college with dyslexia. She got it through Connexions - then heard half its staff in Dorset are being made redundant. The
MILFORD on Sea’s Food Week will return this year for the week starting April 11. Co-ordinated by a small group of volunteers, the event will offer a professional cookery theatre, celebrity shows, cookery competitions, wine tasting and a large
AN UPMARKET nightclub has been stripped of its licence after councillors received a catalogue of complaints about assaults, drunkenness and drug use. Police said The Studio and Priva has been blighted by violence and that ‘poor management’
NEW Forest Conservative MPs Desmond Swayne and Dr Julian Lewis are taking opposing stances over the transfer of the area’s forest and woodlands to a charitable trust. New Forest West constituency MP Mr Swayne favours the sale of Forestry Commission woodlands
SHE was in one of the nation’s best-loved films, The Railway Children, playing an 11-year-old at the age of 20. One year later, she featured in Sam Peckinpah’s enormously controversial revenge thriller Straw Dogs, as a flirtatious village girl
THE Willet Arms in Oakley, Wimborne recently ran a competition inviting punters to design a dish to appear on the pub’s winter menu. After carefully considering all the entrants, Valerie Sweetlove was crowned the winner with her recipe for beef bourgignon
A BOURNEMOUTH secondary school has become the first in the south to be recognised with the Improvement and Excellence in Mathematics Award. Avonbourne School is only the third in the country to receive the honour after being chosen to pilot the new quality
CONGRATULATIONS to Dorset employers who, during the Dorset Apprenticeship 100-in-100 campaign, have pledged to take on 100 Apprentices in 100 days. With support from The Echo, the campaign, launched on September 7, aimed to raise the awareness
TODAY the Daily Echo is launching a £17,000 appeal to bring a disabled teenager more comfort and independence by providing him with a custom built state-of-the-art wheelchair. Toby Edmondson, 13, of Upton, has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a
I HAVE two very well behaved grandsons. One goes to college to learn engineering. He also plays football for Dorset County. The other one is at Bournemouth Grammar school learning to be an accountant. They have both tried to get part-time jobs and
I will probably get branded as a police lover by some but the officers do get the dirty end of the stick. If we are to believe the latest headlines they are going to be given the powers to confiscate people’s phones if they are committing an offence.
Like Jackie Stone (Daily Echo letters Feb 8) I too was concerned to read of the dismissal of a number of teenage pupils from the bishop of Winchester School, but for different reasons. I am now 60-years-old and have witnessed 40 years or more of anti-drugs
ALL this talk of up to 34,000 extra ‘new’ jobs in superstores planned by Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda and Morrison is grossly misleading. Each supermarket will close down many of our smaller local shops such as butchers, bakers, greengrocers, fishmongers,
IMAGINE the scene in the early 70s - a small club on Westcliff, Bournemouth, called The Hive, featuring a three-piece rock band from Ireland, named Skid Row. They had an unknown 18-year-old hippy guitarist by the name of Gary Moore. This was probably
THERE are many things this newspaper has achieved of which I am justifiably proud, not least the amount of money our readers have raised to help people less fortunate than themselves. It’s a rough calculation, but if you take into account the many charity
I AM local editor for the Netmums website in East Dorset and would like to urge your readers to take part in our Netmums Real Parenting Save Our Children’s Centre Campaign launched this week. All around the UK and right here in East Dorset, children
I WOULD like to clear up a common conception, reference the question five in your accumulator quiz in the Daily Echo magazine. I was conscripted into the Army on September 1, 1960, the penultimate intake. After basic and trade training I was posted to
RE the article in the Echo Tuesday, January 25 ‘Bunny Battle Begins’. As an ex town councillor of some 15 years’ experience I am amazed that Cllr Janet Dover of EDD Council seems to think that the welfare of rabbits on the Canford Bottom roundabout is
IF there’s one word to describe Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag, it’s elegant. The pair looked like they were born wearing posh “frocks” and a top hat and tails and looked so at home dancing waltzes and quicksteps on the Pavilion stage. Having not had the
WITHIN the soul of pianist Martin Helmchen there dwells a true Mozartian spirit. His performance of Piano Concerto No17 glowed with finesse, clarity and brilliance. There was no want of expressive depth to the Andante with well balanced winds and in
LIVES could be put at risk if a vital helipad in Poole used by the air ambulance were no longer available. Fears have been raised that if Baiter and Whitecliff is registered as a town green, critically ill patients could not be flown in to
CHERRIES’ forgotten man Stephen Purches is vowing to swim rather than sink as he looks to pull clear of some uncharted waters. Purches, who rarely missed a game during his first spell at Dean Court or with former club Orient, has found himself
IF Kyle Newman catches sight of his mum Alison in the crowd during a Pirates pre-meeting riders’ parade, it’s likely he’ll feel he has finally arrived in the shale sport. The ambitious teenage Poole squad member has been riding regularly since 2007,
PLANS to replace a former leisure centre with two blocks of flats, including one for elderly Jewish people, have been given a cautious thumbs up. David Lloyd wants to build on land off Knole Road in Boscombe, where it had a club until it was
CLUB captain Warren Cummings believes maintaining a strong sense of togetherness will be key as Cherries aim to capitalise on their lofty League One perch. An unbeaten start under new boss Lee Bradbury has continued Eddie Howe’s good work and
