Archive

  • Kids’ kick-off

    A MINI soccer club for children aged over five will be held at Milborne Sports Football Club between 5.30pm and 6.30pm on Wednesday, July 14.

  • Art of diplomacy

    A LIGHT-hearted talk on the diplomatic service will be given at the Williams Opportunity Hall in Blandford next Friday at 2.15pm. The event, hosted by Blandford U3A, is free to all.

  • Date for fete

    STOURPAINE holds its annual village fete from noon to 4pm on Sunday, June 27. Traditional fun including a barbecue and dog show are promised. For more information, call 01258 450544.

  • School’s wind of change

    A HUNDRED pupils at Sopley Primary School jumped for joy when their light, bright and airy eco-friendly extension was officially opened by chairman of governors Dorothy Chubb. Mrs Chubb, 84, still comes to the school, situated in Ripley, on a regular

  • Swapping pews for shopping queues...

    A CHURCH is being converted into a new Tesco Express convenience store, creating up to 20 new jobs. The former Westbourne Methodist Church in Poole Road is currently being re-fitted after the supermarket giant secured a long-term lease on the building

  • Showcase celebrates heritage of town

    HISTORIC artefacts charting the history of Blandford are now on display at the town’s information centre. The objects – which include Roman tiles and a century-old child’s bonnet – have been loaned to the centre in the Marsh and Ham car park by the Blandford

  • In memory of Mum – it’s a proud moment for Morgan, five

    GRINNING from ear to ear, five-year-old Morgan Light handed over a cheque to charity in memory of her mum. Morgan joined friends and family in a sponsored cycle ride to raise an impressive £3,800 for the hospital where her mum, Jenny Craigdaillie, was

  • Dorset gran still in pain after bus fall

    WITH her blackened eyes and bruises you might think this grandmother of five had been mugged – but all she did was get on a bus. The inset photograph shows 77-year-old Margaret Buss from Corfe Mullen after an incident in which she claims she was sent

  • Students to return from Kyrgyzstan

    STEPS are being taken to bring a group of Bournemouth University students home from Kyrgyzstan following recent unrest. The group of four is currently undertaking a conservation project in the Central Asian country as part of their BA degree

  • Sock it to him... but not on Father's Day

    BUYING any man a present is never easy, but Father’s Day is an absolute minefield because there are just so many terrible presents you can buy – and we don’t just mean the usual tat like comedy ties and nasal hair trimmers. Only last year

  • Zumba craze taking off in Dorset

    IT’S just after 9.30 on a mid-week morning and the gym studio is already packed with women of all shapes and sizes shaking their bootys to the Latin beat. There’s so much laughter and energy in the room that it feels more like a private party than

  • Fly-tippers put ponies lives at risk with grass

    COMMONERS’ ponies are being put at risk by fly-tippers who dump grass and other colic-inducing garden waste in the beautiful New Forest. Now Official Verderer Oliver Crosthwaite Eyre is urging residents to report fly-tippers to the Forestry Commission

  • United effort to help stamp out antisocial behaviour

    BUSINESSES and youth leaders have united in Sturminster Newton in a bid to stamp out antisocial behaviour in the town. More police will patrol the town at weekends in a bid to target troublemakers and reassure residents. Police have

  • Will Mary Queen of Shops boost Clealls Stores?

    A Corfe Castle shop is steeling itself for a surge in business after featuring on primetime TV. Clealls Stores received a makeover and took business advice from BBC2’s Mary Queen of Shops, Mary Portas. Owners Chris and Juliet Porter

  • Hidden gardens

    “HIDDEN” gardens in Blandford will open to the public on Sunday. Eighteen private gardens across the town will open as part of Blandford Hidden Gardens 2010, an event co-ordinated by the Blandford Stour Rotary and the Clean-up Blandford Campaign, with

  • Services saluted

    A CEREMONY to mark the beginning of Armed Forces Week will be held at the flagpole of North Dorset District Council at 10.15am on Monday. The council’s new chairman, Cllr Steve Hitchings, pictured, will be joined by civic dignitaries, military personnel

  • Friendly gesture

    THE Friends of Blandford Hospital’s charity shop in Barnack Walk, Blandford, will reopen at 10am on Wednesday. The first 50 customers will receive a free and reusable linen bag.

  • Are too many sequels giving us film fatigue?

    I READ a piece the other day that said we’ve become sick of sequels. Cinema-goers are becoming bored of franchise follow-ups and remakes and crave something new and exciting. Between May-August this year, 11 releases are going to be

  • Swanage ready to welcome troops

    WARTIME classics singer Jill Daniels, who was chosen to perform at the 50th anniversary D Day celebrations and the Queen’s Jubilee, will take centre stage at Swanage’s Armed Forces Weekend. The two-day extravaganza, which has grown into a firm favourite

  • Ghana: Kelewele (fried plantain)

    Kelewele is a popular Ghanaian snack or side dish made from plantains. They are basically fried plantain pieces, seasoned with spices. Kelewele Serves 6-8 4-6 plantains, bananas, ripe, but not past ripe, peeled and cut into bite-sized

  • Cherries: Howe braced for difficult start

    Cherries boss Eddie Howe believes his side's tough opening to the campaign will act as a good gauge of their League One credentials. The newly-promoted Dean Court outfit could not have been given a more difficult start - with a trip to Charlton

  • Himalayan hell plea over threat to rivers

    It might look pretty but an alien plant is stifling natural life along Dorset’s rivers. The Himalayan balsam is leading an invasion of our waterways and Dorset Wildlife Trust and Dorset Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group are fighting back.

  • Plea for restraint after Surrey e coli outbreak

    PET corners across Dorset say they’re already doing all they can to prevent infection. A Health Protection Agency report has suggested tighter guidelines for the popular attractions, following an E.coli outbreak in Surrey which hospitalised

  • Public keep hospital’s future high on agenda

    POWERFUL support for Christchurch Hospital has helped to keep its future at the top of the agenda following a recent consultation. The results of the exercise held earlier this year by Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals Trust show overwhelming

  • Wayne Rooney champing at the bit

    Wayne Rooney has shrugged off his injury problems and is ready to explode on to the World Cup stage. By his own admission, England's World Cup talisman was not quite right at the end of last season. Now though, after a relatively quiet performance

  • Thousands cheer Rifles home in Dorchester

    THOUSANDS lined the streets of Dorchester to cheer soldiers from the Rifles on a homecoming march from Afghanistan. An estimated 3,000 people cheered, clapped and shouted support as 150 uniformed officers and soldiers from A Company 4th Battalion paraded

  • Made to order menu at Bengal Paradise hits the spot

    THE best take-away curries are always the impromptu ones, so with nothing defrosted and the day before’s pasta-bake looking decidedly un-alluring, it was time to dig out the most recent menu to have popped on to our doormat. Bengal Paradise

  • Stepping Out, Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth

    RICHARD Harris’s 25-year-old play-with-music (it’s not a musical) has survived the passage of time perfectly intact. This production by Richard Baron was enjoyable fare, the setting of a dilapidated village hall hosting a dysfunctional group of amateur

  • Drink-drive review is welcomed by family

    THE family of a grandfather who was killed in a road crash by a drunken lorry driver has welcomed a review recommending that the drink-drive limit be lowered. Dennis Watts, 56, died after Didier Andre Gillis ploughed his articulated lorry into

  • How short is too short for a skirt?

    TOO short or not too short – that is the question. From Doctor Who’s new assistant causing furore by wearing a particularly tiny version, to a school in Yorkshire which banned them altogether, skirts have been hitting the headlines. The debate is not

  • Why Large needs Little

    SO THE big talking point of this World Cup, apart from that annoying background drone – and let’s be fair, Mick McCarthy is doing his best – is what a slow start it’s all been. “Worst tournament ever” has been the cry, with some critics blaming the bouncy

  • Cherries: League campaign starts at Charlton

    CHERRIES will begin their League One season with one of the most difficult matches they could have been given - a trip to Charlton Athletic. The newly-promoted side will visit the former Premier League outfit on Saturday, August 7. Cherries earned their

  • Academy seven make the grade

    Poole High School Career Academy has had seven students graduate from the two-year programme in a ceremony at the Institute of Education in London. They join over 600 other young people from schools and colleges across the country that have graduated

  • 'Fair funding' hope for Dorset's pupils

    CAMPAIGNERS for fairer funding for Dorset’s schools are holding their breath for an announcement from the coalition government’s new education department. Members of the Dorset branch of the F40 pressure group say it’s too soon to tell whether new education

  • Shock as Bournemouth head teacher told to stay home

    THE head teacher of a Bournemouth primary school is at home while allegations against her are investigated. Sharon Jones has been placed on “management leave” and an acting head has taken charge at Winton Primary School. Jo Blair, human

  • Surgeons say targets putting lives at risk

    SURGEONS fear management targets may be putting patients’ lives at risk on the operating table, a study by Bournemouth University revealed yesterday. Forty per cent of surgeons said they had been involved in a “near-miss” during the two weeks prior to

  • 'Leave Swanage's Herston Fields alone!'

    ANXIOUS residents have banded together in a bid to stop bulldozers rolling onto a popular Swanage greenfield site. Herston Fields has been outlined as one of Purbeck District Council’s preferred areas for development, as the town needs 200

  • Tragedy as man falls from Poole car park

    INVESTIGATIONS are under way after a man fell to his death from the top of a multi-storey car park in Poole. The 23-year-old man from Wimborne fell from the top of the three-storey Dolphin Shopping Centre car park at around 7.15pm on Tuesday

  • Time to get tough on the level

    WHAT do the countries of Estonia, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary have in common? All of them have zero tolerance for drinking and driving and allow nothing more than a blood alcohol level of 0.0 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres

  • What message do texts send out?

    I am incensed to read of yet another councillor’s inappropriate and offensive behaviour. Who do these people think they are, and what are we doing electing such people to run our town? We place out trust in these councillors and time and time again

  • Who’s to judge?

    Regarding Cllr Richard Powell’s racist text jokes, after his own recent and ongoing dilemma with porn on his council-owned laptop, Cllr Stephen MacLoughlin ought to be the last person to say: “This sounds like a very ill-judged thing to have done

  • Extortionate rises can’t be justified

    On reading Cllr Leverett’s unjustified and condescending attack on Poole Liberal Democrats (Have Your Say, June 13) my initial reaction was one of anger, but on reflection it seemed more appropriate to respond in a more positive manner. I welcome the

  • Ambitious wind farm plan revealed

    UP to 300 wind turbines the height of the London Eye could be sited off the Dorset coast and generating energy by 2018. The offshore wind farm – one of nine to be built nationwide – will provide enough power to sustain more than 600,000 homes

  • Green whale

    You may have missed the breaking news this week, drowned out by the noise of vuvuzelas were trumpeting loudly in Africa, but elsewhere on the news’ agenda scientists were issuing research that will, hopefully, scupper the hopes of the Japanese, Norwegians

  • Developers are not the enemy

    In response to the article Saving our gardens will protect Dorset’s character (Daily Echo, June 10) I must say that I am bemused by some of the comments made. I have been developing in the area for over 30 years and to date have built more than 1,000

  • Lame ducks must act over race row

    For more than two years we had a lame duck Prime Minister limping from one crises to another till finally we had an election. The hope was for open and transparent government and people taking full responsibility for their actions. On a national level

  • Male and email

    In the Echo of June 15 the article about racist texts states, in the factfile on page four, that I split with the Conservatives after circulating an email about Noah’s Ark. Just to put the record straight I did not circulate the email. It was already

  • Look beyond tag of ‘dumping ground’

    Having read the headline on the Daily Echo, I was shocked to discover this was concerning my school (Dumping ground, Daily Echo, June 9). As you may know, the end of the academic year is approaching. It is the time for year six children and their parents

  • Waitrose to back town food festival

    WIMBORNE’S newest food retailer has thrown its weight behind the town’s food festival. Supermarket giant Waitrose, which hopes to open its new store in the town in July, will sponsor the Daily Echo-backed Wimborne Food Festival, which will be held on

  • Top trio reach cookery final

    THREE catering and hospitality students from Bournemouth and Poole College reached the final of a prestigious national competition. Alex Brown, Thomas Orchard and Dan Millington cooked up a treat at the British Culinary Federation Student Challenge

  • Mitchell: Cherries' cup draw reflects upturn in fortunes

    CHAIRMAN Eddie Mitchell believes Cherries’ dream Carling Cup draw demonstrates the club’s upturn in fortunes – and he hopes the Dean Court feelgood factor can inspire a season-ticket sales surge. Cherries were yesterday handed a trip to south coast rivals

  • Cherries: Robinson can't wait for St Mary's clash

    MIDFIELD dynamo Anton Robinson is relishing the prospect of locking horns with local rivals Southampton and is confident Cherries can spring a surprise. The first round draw of the Carling Cup yesterday paired Saints and Cherries, with Eddie Howe’s men

  • Mills confident ahead of second leg

    CHRIS Mills believes Buccaneers can retain their slender hold on the Knockout Cup after they slipped to a disappointing 52-39 defeat at King’s Lynn last night. Bournemouth Castle Cover’s spearhead shrugged off the pain of riding with a cracked

  • Howe: Cherries not scared of Saints

    CHERRIES boss Eddie Howe set his sights on causing a major Carling Cup upset against Southampton and then insisted: “We don’t fear anyone.” The Dean Court outfit were yesterday handed a dream first-round tie at St Mary’s, where they will meet Saints