SHOPLIFTERS and known troublemakers will no longer face bans from Poole’s Dolphin Centre and Falkland Square. The scrapping of exclusion notices, which banned people from premises in the town centre, has raised fears that an important deterrent
RESIDENTS of a sheltered housing complex in Swanage are preparing to go to court in their battle to keep a full-time warden. They took action after hearing that Linda Pearson, the manager of Burr Stone Mead in High Street, was having her hours
There’s a game we sometimes play that purports to find out what your stage name should have been had you chosen a career as a porn-star. You take the name of your first pet and your mother’s maiden name. Put them together and you instantly
A troubled Poole hotel is being transformed into a pub with 20 rooms by a Poole licensee who believes he can buck the recession’s gloom. The Orton Rigg Hotel in Canford Cliffs, formally a specialist hotel for people with arthritis, closed after 40 years
WITH French doors, balconies and bespoke seaside furniture, Boscombe’s new surf pods bear little resemblance to the traditional beach huts that have graced the promenade for more than half a century. Reputed to be the world’s best beach huts, the 58
CHRISTCHURCH and New Milton Seagulls’ Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 mini-polo teams both extended their season-long unbeaten runs in the latest round of Dorset League matches. The KS2 team twice beat West Dorset at Dorchester, winning the first encounter
RACE wins were in plentiful supply as Bournemouth Dolphins’ junior team took on five other Dorset clubs in the RGS Cup gala at Wareham. The gala was almost a dress rehearsal for Dolphins’ defence of their Southern Junior League title, which is due to
COMMUNITY groups in the Blandford area are being invited to bid for £250,000 funding for projects to improve public open space. The Liveability funding had originally been earmarked for a community hall which is no longer considered viable. So now the
WE’LL help save our centre. That’s the message from residents of Blandford and its surrounding villages as the fight to save the town’s leisure centre gathers pace. A survey of centre users during January and February confirmed residents
HAVING immensely enjoyed the Calendar Girls film, I was slightly sceptical as to whether a stage show would do it justice. But I needn’t have worried. The cast of the play, including TV favourites such as Linda Bellingham, Patricia Hodge and Gaynor Faye
International Women’s Day will be celebrated in Poole with a free family event offering a variety of inspiring and supportive attractions. It takes place at Poole Stadium on Sunday (March 8) from 12.30pm until 4pm and is hosted by Borough of Poole and
CAESAR, an assistance dog from Poole, has taken centre stage at the European Parliament in Brussels. The nine-year-old Golden Retriever, accompanying disabled Broadstone resident Wendy Morrell, was one of just three assistance dogs welcomed as part of
HAVE pride in Purbeck and help us spring clean. That’s the message from the district council as it asks for volunteers to take part in the annual event in April. Cllr Paul Johns, built environment spokesman, said: “This is a great opportunity to clean
THE number of recycling centres across Bournemouth should be slashed from 18 to just ten councillors agreed. Members of the Environment and Economy Scrutiny Panel made the recommendation after hearing that Bournemouth Borough Council provides residents
We ended 2008 with a very successful series of Christmas Charity collections. During 10 evenings taking the Santa float around Poole and three days at Sainsburys in Alder Road, local people donated over £4,700, up over 1% on 2007. Given people's
Christmas is over for another year but the Boscombe and Southbourne Club are already planning for next year. This last festive season was tough for many locally and we did our best to make it better by distributing fifty parcels of food to disadvantaged
In mid-December, Christchurch Rotary celebrated its arrival at a new venue. The Christchurch Harbour Hotel (formerly The Avonmouth), with an evening of Christmas Carols splendidly accompanied by members of the Boscombe Salvation Army Band.
A CORFE Mullen councillor is celebrating the success of a countywide project to give unwanted books to people in a war-ravaged African country. Cllr Susan Jefferies began a local campaign to send books to Sierra Leone last November, and her efforts
TRIBUTES have been paid to a Poole man, awarded the British Empire Medal for 38 years’ exemplary service with the police, who died aged 80. Norman Parfitt joined the Metropolitan Police in 1950 serving in Bethnal Green, before joining the river police
I came to work ill prepared for running yesterday. What happened? Well, I fell into the one-day-of-sunshine-doesn't-make-a-spring and left my running jacket at home. So when I stepped - be-t-shirted and barelegged - out of Echo Towers
BOURNEMOUTH’S full council voted down an attempt to renegotiate the Boscombe surf reef contract with constructors ASR. On Tuesday night they voted 39-5 against the move by the reef’s most vocal critic, Cllr Ben Grower. He claimed
Every Cloud Contributed by iansharman on 03/03/09 I know, it was stupid of me to drive, but, it’s only ten minutes in the car to get home, I really didn’t think it would do any harm. I guess not thinking was the problem. I…I really
THE Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is developing its Annual Plan for 2009/10. The Plan sets out how we will be developing our services over the next year, taking into account the local strategies of other
Broadcaster ITV today announced it was axing 600 jobs and making other ''significant'' savings aimed at cutting costs. The company, which has been hit by a fall in advertising, said it planned efficiency savings of £155 million this year, rising
BJARNE Pedersen has shocked Pirates fans by revealing he will line up for Newcastle in his testimonial at Wimborne Road later this month. But the Dane has been quick to point out he will be switching teams for one-night only and that his first love in
BEFORE supermarkets criticise the public for eating and drinking their products before payment (Daily Echo, February 28), which I do not condone in any way, my wife and I have had numerous occasions when we have been charged more for our goods than the
The FSP report on Bournemouth town centre (Daily Echo, February 27) is correct in one respect – Bournemouth does not do enough to encourage day trippers to visit the town centre after leaving the beach. We take a perverse delight in having
Recently I visited Weymouth. What a marvellous job they have done to include the old brewery and make it into a really attractive place that people will go there for. Portsmouth is another shopping venue/attraction which will be very popular. These
My husband and I enjoyed a five-day break in Bournemouth last week. Of course, visiting at this time of the year, we realised that certain attractions wouldn’t be open, such as the cliff lifts, but I was very disappointed at the state of the illuminations
When Poole council decided not to allow free swimming for pensioners a councillor suggested that perhaps the existing free swim times could be looked at and maybe extended. Was anything decided about this? Could Poole council answer through these pages
MY current fitness regime – I roughly calculate it’s the 26th of my adulthood – has resulted in us taking the rather unusual step of creating a ‘dry’ home. This means that there is no alcohol in the house and that consumption of the demon drink only
EXCITING plans for a high-class restaurant have been unveiled as a key part of the Boscombe Spa regeneration scheme. The ground floor of the Overstrand building by the pier has been handed over. And Mark Cribb, the young entrepeneur behind
IT is hard to imagine that this happy little girl is alive thanks to a calf’s vein used to repair her heart. Megan Mills from Creekmoor, Poole, needed major surgery days after she was born weighing just five pounds 13 ounces. Her tiny heart was missing
Local sailor artists and photographers will return to the Regent Centre for their second exhibition from Saturday March 7. The Christchurch Sailing Club Art Group will be presenting the exhibition From the Waterfront 2009 featuring images of the coast
Oscar-nominated film Frost/Nixon comes to the Regent Centre’s big screen from Monday March 9 until Thursday March 12 at 7.30pm. Matinees will be held on Wednesday Mar 11 and Thursday Mar 12 at 2.30pm at the cinema in Christchurch. For more details contact
Late-night comedy is coming to the Regent Centre this Saturday. Three comics will launch the Regent Centre’s Good Sense of Humour season with further comedy nights arranged for Saturday April 4 and Saturday May 2. Howard Read, Tiernan Douieb and Tom
THE plight of reality TV star Jade Goody has raised awareness of one kind of female cancer, but women are surprisingly ignorant about another that is much more likely to kill them. Research for the charity Ovarian Cancer Action found that only eight
CONTROVERSIAL plans to demolish Matchams Stadium to make way for a housing development have been refused. An application for outline planning permission to raze the 50-year-old stadium at Matchams Park off Hurn Road, and build 40 homes went before East
My family have been in Bournemouth for five generations. During that period Bournemouth developed into one of the most beautiful and genteel places in Britain. Unfortunately, through the hands of various administrations, it has been in decline for 40
I couldn’t agree more about the blandness of Bournemouth. I’ve lived here for 10 years, and in that time I’ve seen much of its Victorian heritage pulled down and replaced with, third rate featureless, nondescript flats, and third world supermarkets
Harriet Harman hints that Sir Fred Goodwin will not get the pension he is legally entitled to “enforceable in a court of law, but it’s not enforceable in the court of public opinion”. May I point out that nor was the John Lewis list that Ms Harman and
First it was the banks. Now frustrated Christchurch residents have called for bus services to be nationalised and said they have been so isolated by recent Wilts & Dorset cutbacks that some have attempted to sell their homes.
AROUND 20 Bournemouth council staff – including badly-needed social workers and occupational therapists – have been told to stay at home after allegedly sending emails which were branded offensive. A probe was launched after complaints about
A tribute show to the ’50s and ’60s will take place at the Regent Centre in Christchurch on Sunday March 8. C’mon Everybody is a rock and roll show featuring songs from Brenda Lee, Bill Haley and The Comets, Connie Francis, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry
PIRATES chief Matt Ford has quickly held his hands up high and admitted it was his mistake in thinking Chris Neath was eligible to line up at number eight for the Dorset club. The Wimborne Road supremo revealed to the Echo late on Monday the Rye House
I’m not a big fan of running. It’s not a secret, just ask anyone that’s ever played football with me. Running for no reason or with no real purpose other than to get back to where you started, but a bit sweatier, seems a pointless exercise
BOSS Eddie Howe masterminded the latest leg of Cherries’ survival mission and then threw down the gauntlet to his players to keep their heads above water. A 2-0 win over Aldershot Town at Dean Court last night saw Howe’s braves claw their
