Review of the year 2018 January

January

• Despite safety fears, participants in the New Year’s day bathtub race in Poole have a splashing time racing their weird and wacky craft round the quay.
• In Bournemouth there are angry scenes when bailiffs clear the Occupy site at the former Punshon Memorial chapel.
• A tree crashes down onto Bournemouth’s Ashton Road and Mudeford Quay gets a drenching when Storm Eleanor rages in.
• The Blandford Road and Holes Bay Road roadworks cause such gridlock that drivers abandon their vehicles and walk to Poole town centre.
• Verwood resident Freda Stevens celebrates her 108th birthday.
• AFC Bournemouth players, including Callum Wilson, are drafted in to drum up support for the borough’s food bank. And Eddie Howe pays moving tribute to Cherries groundsman, John Harriss, after he sadly dies, aged 88, a few hours after watching his beloved team demolish Arsenal.
• Dorset’s chief crime commissioner sparks controversy when he says that professional beggars who aren’t homeless are targetting shoppers in Bournemouth and Poole.
• Devoted Christchurch couple Basil and Dorothy Ellis enjoy a surprise party and a visit from town mayor Nick Geary to celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary.
• In Bournemouth the body of a rough sleeper is found. He is identified as Kevin Filsell. The story sparks national interest and an explosion of fury against Bournemouth council’s anti-homeless measures.
• A 20,000 strong petition is launched to save the school pigs at Priestlands School in Lymington from slaughter.
• It’s goodbye Mr Kyps as the popular Ashley Cross venue announces its closure because its premises are up for redevelopment.
• Outrage is sparked when One Stop in Southbourne Grove tries to prevent a ginger tabby cat from paying its daily visit. According to locals he waits to cross the busy road then slips inside. A spokesman says the decision was made for health and safety reasons.

February

• Artist Stuart Semple criticises Bournemouth council’s ‘hostile design’ towards the homeless and the campaign is taken up by rapper Professor Green, who visits the town. More than 17,000 people sign a petition by Poole student Savanna Cutts complaining about measures against the homeless.
• The funeral of Jac Holmes, the Bournemouth IT worker who laid down his life fighting against the Islamic State terror group, is held in Wimborne.
• M&S opens a new store in Broadstone. June Walker is the first customer through the doors.
• Poole brothers Jay and Kiran Olencziz write themselves into the record books after rowing the Atlantic to raise £10,000 for Julia’s House.
• Firefighters have to waken rough sleepers at the Occupy site in Boscombe’s Ashley Road after fire breaks out.
• Poole man Shaun Carrington celebrates losing 20 stone. The 31-year-old tipped the scales at more than 33 stone and now ‘feels like teenager again’.
• Dippy the diplodocus visits Dorset County Museum for a three-month stay.
• Residents at the Ferndown Manor care home in Golf Links Road and the Potteries in Poole’s York Road receive a visit from three friendly alpacas.
• Mr Eddie Spence of Dawn Pennington cake artistry school hangs up his icing bag after 71 years – he started icing cakes when he was just 14
• More than 100 people attend the funeral for homeless Bournemouth man, Kevin Filsell.
• A mouse infestation cases Ringwood Infant School to close.
• Residents at Fairmile Grange care home are treated to a display of pole dancing. A spokesman describes the controversial show as ‘just another form of entertainment’.
• Defend Dorset NHS starts its campaign against the downgrading of Poole Hospital’s maternity and A&E units.
• Icicles form on the Ashley Cross fountain in Poole as the area is frozen in the snow.

March

• The Beast from the East sweeps in, blanketing the area in snow and causing road chaos. The Army is called in to help more than 100 motorists stranded in drifts for more than six hours on the A31 in the New Forest.
• Buildings at Blandford’s brewery are gutted by fire.
• Thrill seekers who climbed onto Poole Bridge are condemned as ‘stupid and incredibly dangerous’.
• Campaigners win the right to a judicial review of the CSR involving Poole and Bournemouth hospitals.
• Residents at Sunrise old folks home in Westbourne are overjoyed when a babyfit workout comes to visit and mums and babies join them for a chat.
• The car of a hero police officer poisoned in the Sergei Skripal novichok attack in Salisbury is taken away from Gillingham in Dorset, after fears it may have been contaminated too.
• Former Bournemouth school pupil Jennifer Kehoe celebrates a Paralympic medal haul at the Winter Olympics, partnering visually impaired skier, Menna Fitzpatrick.
• Tomorrow, April to June