IMAGINE being woken constantly by sickly people wanting medical advice - that's the real-life nightmare John Harpham is living because his number is mistaken for an NHS helpline. Complete strangers ring in the middle of the night and tell the Harpham
CYCLISTS will be able to pedal along Bournemouth promenade for longer next year in a bid to encourage car-free commuting. But when they get to Poole they could have to dismount because while Bournemouth is relaxing its summer restrictions, its neighbour
A FASCINATING and well thought-out guide to Weymouth's history from 1790 to 2004 has just been published. Weymouth Revisited by Maureen Attwooll and Colin A Pomeroy is a book built from illustrations and photographs with easy to read captions underneath
A TREASURED griffin statue has gone missing from a garden in Poole - and it is thought it may have been taken as a New Year's Eve prank. Now Dave Spooner and fiance Tamar are appealing for help in finding the lost mythical creature, which had only adorned
WIMBORNE TOWN 2 PORTLAND UNITED 2 FATHER and son Darren and Lewis Whyton combined to earn Portland United a superb Sydenhams Wessex League point at high-flying Wimborne Town last night. Whyton senior came out of retirement to marshal the Blues defence
SMALL and medium businesses in Dorset could be unwittingly breaking competition laws and risking severe penalties. The warning to local businesses comes after the Office of Fair Trading fined a number of roofing contractors in the West Midlands a total
CONTROVERSY surrounds a charitable donation to a special school because town council chiefs say the money had been earmarked for another charity. Former mayor of Ferndown John Rigler is concerned that a £292 donation to Beaucroft Community School could
VANDALS are putting people's lives in danger by stealing life rings from Weymouth seafront. Council officers were unsure exactly when the rings were taken from the sea front along Preston Beach Road. Robert George, Weymouth and Portland Borough Council
THE future of Weymouth's historic Nothe Fort will be decided within weeks. Campaigners are waiting to hear whether an application for £2.4 million to launch a repair programme has been successful. Weymouth Civic Society says that the Nothe desperately
PLANS to revamp Fordingbridge Town Hall were dealt a heavy blow when the architect of the scheme quit after a fierce dispute over the latest designs. Councillors are divided about the plans to carve up parts of the Grade II listed building's main hall
STEPS are being taken to reduce traffic speed and improve safety at a Christchurch accident blackspot which claimed the life of a young motorcyclist on New Year's Eve. In its latest move in a long campaign to make the Barrack Road-Stour Road junction
WE got the children a trampoline for Christmas. A giant contraption, 12ft in diameter. The plan was that we'd hide all the bits in the garage and I'd assemble it in the back garden on Christmas Eve, after they'd all fallen asleep. The reality was that
YOUR response has been fantastic. Around £40,000 has been raised locally for the tsunami aid appeal in just a couple of days thanks to kind-hearted Daily Echo readers and panto-goers. The staggering figure is an illustration of how people across the region
IT was 9.45am - an hour when most stage performers haven't even got around to thinking about their cornflakes - yet backstage the Bournemouth Pavilion was buzzing. Actors, dancers and singers were getting ready for the first leg of Panto Relief - a two-show
BOURNEMOUTH council is poised to relinquish control of its refurbished BIC along with the town's leisure centres. The conference centre, which is undergoing an £18 million-plus revamp, would be managed by a charitable body. The plan could save the council
WHEN a young excited Caesar the dog entered Wendy Morrell's life he knocked over a glass of orange juice and she was worried he might be too much for her. But since then the five-and-a-half-year-old golden retriever has become her best friend and lifeline
TIGHTENING the harness around his waist, Karl Cadwallader slots his bare feet into board bindings. He crouches back on the sand, the ropes go taut and with surprising force Karl and his board plough across the beach and then the water, reaching speeds
A DORSET landmark featured on countless postcards, calendars and tea towels will now be seen all over Britain - as a second class stamp. Old Harry Rocks has played a starring role in generations of school geography projects because of its unusual geology
AS if life on the Chatsworth Estate wasn't unhinged enough, the Gallagher clan's festive celebrations have looked set to destroy the very idea of peace on earth and goodwill to all men. Following Paul Abbot's 90-minute Christmas special of Channel 4's
CANCER specialists in Poole have so impressed the government with their work that the team has been chosen to be part of a new international pilot project. Poole Primary Care Trust's Community Cancer Nurse Specialist (CCNS) Team is the only one of its
BATTLING Cherries withstood a late Doncaster Rovers onslaught and held out for a point at Belle Vue after playing the last 20 minutes with 10 men on January 3. Sean O'Driscoll's side were forced to dig deep after Brian Stock had been showed a straight
Former boss Steve Claridge was the inspiration behind Weymouth's 3-1 win over Hayes yesterday, according to Steve Johnson. Claridge, sacked by the club in November, claimed in a national newspaper at the weekend that he left a better set of players than
BOURNEMOUTH Shakespeare Players will be holding auditions tonight and tomorrow (January 4 & 5) for their summer open-air run of As You Like It. The play, which will be staged in July, is their 27th annual Shakespeare production in the Priory House
THE people of south and west Dorset have raised tens of thousands of pounds for the victims of the Asian earthquake... and more is coming in all the time. People across the area have been organising fundraising events large and small to help with disaster
HOT food will warm homeless people in Weymouth as the town's first soup kitchen starts tonight. So far 25 kind volunteers have responded to the Echo appeal to help deliver supper to the rough sleepers in the town. Organiser Michael Daniel, a former RAF
AN AUSTRALIAN has thanked kind Echo readers who responded to an appeal to locate his family. Ivan Glover, of Port Denison, West Australia, asked for help in finding his brother-in-law Brian Caddy through the Echo last month. Within 24 hours, six people
STOUR Meadows could be used to stage celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Blandford being granted the Royal Charter. Initial plans had been to hold the battle re-enactment part of the celebrations at Milldown. But while North Dorset District Council
A WOMAN was airlifted to hospital with serious head injuries after she was struck by a train near Christchurch railway station on Monday morning (Jan 3). The local woman in her mid-50s was taken by air ambulance helicopter to the Royal Bournemouth hospital
CHERRIES midfielder Brian Stock has admitted he may have second thoughts about appealing against his sending off at Doncaster. Stock saw red for the second time in his career following a crude two-footed lunge on Rovers' John Doolan 20 minutes from time
