DORSET cannot risk losing out on a major overhaul to a traffic hotspot ahead of next year’s Olympics because of rabbits, councillors are warning. Annette Brooke, MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, has joined the dispute and contacted the RSPCA
THE first foundations have been laid at Lewis-Manning Hospice as it undergoes a £2.5million rebuild. The former home of Marjorie Lewis-Manning, left in trust to become a hospice, has been demolished to make way for a state-of-the-art building. Work
MORE than 1.4 million council workers across the country will face a pay freeze for the second year running, it has been announced. With inflation running at 4 per cent, the freeze - which takes effect from April 1 - amounts to a real-terms cut in
BOURNEMOUTH’S hated Waterfront Imax building is set to be partially demolished to make way for an “interim” all-weather attraction. Council Cabinet members yesterday backed a scheme for the prime seafront site with a planning application to
JEWELLERY worth more than £4,500 was stolen when burglars raided a flat in the heart of Lymington. The haul, which included a wedding ring with a double row of yellow and white diamonds, a diamond and sapphire engagement ring and four pairs of earrings
Residents have been given the chance to comment on proposals that are set to transform a cramped Poole school. Plans for the £15 million redevelopment of Ashdown Technology College went on show to the local community to demonstrate how the
A JURY retired today to consider its verdict on two brothers accused of misleading thousands of customers into visiting a Lapland-style theme park. Victor and Henry Mears deny eight charges of selling misleading advertising in relation to the
Confusion reigns over the future of 20 threatened libraries despite an impassioned two-hour debate at Dorset County Council this morning. Councillors voted to go out to consultation on a proposal to transfer 20 of the council’s 34 libraries
FEAR, pride – and the fact you cannot kiss them better. The death of a Bournemouth-born soldier has highlighted Dorset’s mothers’ own experiences as their children fight in Afghanistan. Private Conrad Lewis, 22, who moved to Warwickshire as a toddler
THE body of an elderly man who “disappeared off the face of the earth” was discovered more than a year later in thick undergrowth just 25 feet from a busy road, an inquest has heard. Detectives think Michael Laing, who suffered from dementia, may have
CONCERNS over children playing next to a busy road on a Christchurch estate has led to a fundraising campaign by local residents. The Hillary Green Child Safety Project wants to raise money for a metal fence with shrubbery to go across Hillary
A DORSET MP has been called an “extremist” for sponsoring a bill to cut the minimum wage in some parts of the country. Christopher Chope, MP for Christchurch, came up with the Minimum Wage (Amendment) Bill, which will have its second reading
HIS ill-gotten gains might have been taken away from him, but the US justice system couldn’t strip Mark of the memories. The former brickie from Bournemouth is regaling me with stories about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s private cigar club, of which
DORSET’S highest-paid council chief executive has not taken up a challenge from a cabinet minister to take a pay cut. David Jenkins, the senior officer at Dorset County Council, earns £164,306 a year, making him the highest paid chief executive
You could have had your state pension stolen from you without knowing hit. A huge flaw in the National Insurance (NI) system means millions of people have paid for years but haven't had it credited. I want to explain how to check if affected
THIEVES have snatched four chickens living in a coop made by students at Bournemouth’s Portchester School. Tallulah, Clucky, Tinky Winky and Tinkerbell were living happily at the Harewood Avenue school and helping students with their studies until they
DEVELOPERS are confident of meeting the “challenging conditions” imposed for the controversial £14million Alaska Wind Farm. Purbeck District Council’s planning board agreed in principle to the four-turbine farm at Master’s Quarry, East Stoke
DURING the Middle Ages this type of device was used to lay siege to ancient strongholds by hurling diseased cows over castle walls. But the good residents of Corfe Castle have no need to keep a watchful eye skyward for falling cattle, because
Campaigners are celebrating the Government's decision to abandon controversial plans to offload thousands of hectares of woodland, including the New Forest. Ministers have decided to halt consultation into proposals to dispose of Forestry Commission
Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers’ Zuppa di Vongole Serves 2-3 1kg small clams 1tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling 1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped 1 dried red chilli, crumbled 1 1/2tbsp chopped
BOURNEMOUTH doesn’t have an official playwright. But if it did, surely Sir Terrence Rattigan would have been it. Like the town, Rattigan was elegant and refined on the outside, the perfect English gentleman. But underneath the genteel exterior there
A RAPE victim says she is shocked and angry at hearing sex attackers could one day come off the Sex Offenders Register. Those placed on the list for life will now be able to appeal to have their name removed after the Supreme Court ruled that being on
FROM South Africa to Sweden, 25 motivated Ferndown Upper School students are off to spread the legacy of Royal Marine John Thornton. Nearly three years on from his death in Afghanistan, proud parents Linda and Peter Thornton were still hearing new stories
WIMBORNE’S popular late nightspot Bonkers is set to close in March and reopen, under new management, with a dramatic new look and an entirely new direction. From April 1, the club will become Vibe Lounge – a funky, new and versatile venue offering
OUT to tickle audiences tomorrow night is a top line-up of comedians at Funnybone comedy night at Centre Stage Bournemouth with no less than two headline acts on the same night. Kicking off proceedings is Scottish comedian Dave Whitney whose act has
HER performance at the Brit Awards on Tuesday night has been the talk of the music world - and now Adele has announced she'll be playing Bournemouth's BIC in September. Tickets go on sale on Friday for the BIC Windsor Hall gig on September 5. Visit
FURTHER to the feature on buses on February 14. No buses run after 6pm at the Broadway, Southbourne. None at the weekends not before 9.45. Where is the Big Society. NAME & ADDRESS SUPPLIED
THANK you very much to the good Samaritan who kindly handed my car key into the Quarterjack surgery in Wimborne on Monday morning, February 14. I had dropped it in the little car park opposite and thought I had lost my key for good, so was pleasantly
IF he is not already aware, there is more bad news on the way for John Stones (‘Huge rising costs of being a pensioner’, Letters February 12). When he checks his Income Tax Code for 2011-12 shortly he will find that his personal (tax free) allowance
SO THE Prime Minister is ‘passionately’ pushing his pet theme called The Big Society and hoping, perhaps praying that the public will respond wholeheartedly to it? I have my doubts, owing to previous airy-fairy promises he made, unfulfilled since joining
I MUST challenge my near neighbour Alan Gerault’s thoughtless “I’m All Right Jack” suggestion (letters page February 8, 2011), that pensioners pay £1 a day for bus passes. That’s £7 a week, £365 a year which many hard-up pensioners (mainly ladies) can
I REFER to what can only be described as a minor controversy regarding MP Annette Brooke’s expenses. I can only assume that it is a statistical blip due to the short time scale and set up costs of preparing everything for the next parliamentary five
THE problem of obesity is with us, but if you want to get fit and help a charity as well, Bourne-mouth Council is organising the Bournemouth Bay run on April 3, starting at Bournemouth Pier, in aid of the British Heart Foundation. There will be four
I AM writing in response to the letter ‘Back our children’s centres campaign’ (Echo, February 10) which contains incorrect statements about Children’s Centre closures in East Dorset. Children’s Centres in Dorset are not under threat of closure or facing
THE temporary set-aside rescue helicopter sales should offer a period of reconsideration of the entire situation. Leave aside the finances, although the only ones rubbing their hands with glee were the Ministry of Defence procurers who hoped to transfer
THERE is a lot of rejoicing by Poole Council regarding the Twin Sails Bridge Project. It is not seen that way by many as the right bridge – the council should have stuck for a variable depth concrete bridge over to Holes Bay Road with no lifts
SPECTACULAR, sumptuous playing under Kirill Karabits in the BSO’s regular excursion to the shores of Arabia where Scheherazade spent the first two years nine months of married life spinning bedtime stories to her husband. The precision and nuancing
SARCASTIC, cynical, world-weary and battle-scarred from countless run-ins with insolent children and their stroppy parents, Kevin Precious is the real-deal - a staff room survivor who escaped the teaching profession for a new life. The fact that he
FOR me at least, 2010 was a dire year for music. I could count the number of albums I bought on one hand. Thankfully, 2011 has already delivered more than last year did and the bands on this bill are among those leading what will hopefully
IF the combined common sense of the girls caught on video behaving so aggressively at a Bournemouth shop were placed on one side of a set of scales and an empty bag of nothing on the other, which would be the heavier? I could take a guess.
A GANG of abusive teenage girls who attacked a male shop worker when he asked them to leave his store were captured on film. Their violent physical assault was recorded by some of the store’s CCTV network and another video camera. Shocking
CHAIRMAN Eddie Mitchell is offering supporters FREE coach travel to Cherries’ rearranged League One clash with Bristol Rovers. Mitchell has made the gesture after numerous fans were left frustrated following the late postponement of Tuesday’s scheduled
CHAIRMAN Eddie Mitchell could have stirred up a hornets’ nest ahead of Cherries’ eagerly-awaited derby with south coast neighbours Southampton. Mitchell has invited a number of guests to attend the Dean Court showdown on March 12 – including Saints legends
CIVIC chiefs have agreed to reduce the speed limit for “pleasure boats” from eight nautical miles to six in a bid to safeguard Boscombe surf reef users. A similar speed reduction will be imposed in an area of the sea 200 metres out from the
