A COUPLE accused of abandoning their three-month-old baby in Portugal handed themselves in to Bournemouth police last night. It is believed the local couple left the boy, called Charlie, in a carrycot near Portugal's Faro airport before flying back to
PARENTS of pupils at Summerbee Secondary School yesterday(Tuesday)joined to condemn a student who had set fire to a teacher's hair. While the traumatised female member of staff struggles to carry on with lessons, the pupil responsible has been permanently
YOUNGSTERS are busy preparing for their grand dance debut tomorrow (Thursday) - in a sold out show at the Bournemouth International Centre. Dancers from the Paradise Freeway School of Dance will perform to an original script, written by Tina Croad, aimed
PLANNERS will decide this week whether to support plans for a quarry near Wareham to be used as a landfill site. Viridor Waste Management has applied to turn 49 acres of Trigon quarry into a dump for rubbish from East Dorset. Furious residents are against
A PLAN to sink a former battleship off the West Dorset coast was launched this week. It is the idea of the Lyme Bay Diving Club which says a wreck on the seabed could attract underwater enthusiasts from across the country - as well as providing a vital
HOSPITAL staff at Bridport were celebrating this week after winning a prestigious Charter Mark award for excellence in service to the public. New matron Sue Snowdon said that the award was a tribute to the success of the hospital in improving the patients
POOLE Meridian Lifts star Hans Andersen is going to be an official pin-up boy for the town's tourist board. The 21-year-old Pirates rider, who possesses model looks, has secured a £2,000 sponsorship deal with Poole Borough Council. And as part of the
A COUNCILLOR has blasted her own authority for spending cash on improving its image at a time when council taxpayers are facing a 21 per cent rise. Cllr Janet Dover said attempts by East Dorset District Council to improve its corporate image were "inappropriate
Fashion chain New Look is back on track following a huge boost in sales. The Weymouth-based company recorded a jump in sales in the run-up to Christmas - and is expecting profits to come in ahead of expectations, it said today. Shares in the firm immediately
WEYMOUTH'S Nothe Fort is to submit a second bid for lottery funds to try to raise £1.5 million to save the historic site from falling into the sea. The fort's original £2 million bid in 1999 was turned down by lottery bosses but it gained a sympathetic
HEALTH watchdogs have upheld the complaints of a Weymouth widower whose wife died minutes after her GP told her she had indigestion. Eric Joy, of Crispins Close, in Wyke Regis, called in the Ombudsman to investigate the death of his wife in 1999 after
HOSPITAL staff at Bridport are celebrating after winning a prestigious Charter Mark award for excellence in services to the public. New matron Sue Snowdon said today that the award was a tribute to the success of the hospital in improving patients' quality
ADDICTION services in Dorset are being starved of funds, according to drug workers in the county. A wide range of help is offered to addicts in Weymouth and West Dorset, but health chiefs say services are being underfunded by central government. The Community
THE FATHER of a young heroin addict claims a lack of support from doctors in the Weymouth area is preventing users from kicking the habit. The middle-aged businessman says his son wants to come off heroin, but doctors have been unwilling to help him.
A MULTI-MILLION pound deal has been signed between Bournemouth-based Bath Travel and independent medical emergency company Cega Air Ambulance. Bath Travel has taken over responsibility for most of Cega's business travel account. The agreement also means
A PLAN to sink a former battleship off the West Dorset coast was launched this week. It is the idea of the Lyme Bay Diving Club which says a wreck on the seabed could attract underwater enthusiasts from across the country - as well as providing a vital
HOSPITAL staff at Bridport were celebrating this week after winning a prestigious Charter Mark award for excellence in service to the public. New matron Sue Snowdon said that the award was a tribute to the success of the hospital in improving the patients
QUICK, decisive thinking and imaginative improvisation by three paramedics which helped save a man's life has been praised by Dorset Ambulance Service. Poole-based David Hindson, Paul Gaussen and Peter Powell were all deemed worthy winners of the Paramedic
BOURNEMOUTH councillor Phil Carey has been praised by supporters of the Winter Gardens for sticking to his guns despite being kicked out of the Conservative group. He refused to back down on his decision after being disciplined for voting against the
THE chief executive of Bournemouth Borough Council has insisted no rules were broken when the authority decided to overturn an earlier decision and sell the Winter Gardens. Opposition councillors are angry at the way the authority's Conservative leadership
HE ALMOST claimed the Christmas number one spot with his self-penned single How Wonderful You Are and his album, Harry's Bar, has gone straight into the LP charts at number two. But this week Dorset singer-songwriter Gordon Haskell went back to his roots
A TRAIN driver who went into heart failure at the bottom of the sea off Swanage could have died at any time, an inquest has heard. Sports diver James Parsons, 51, of Alderney in Poole, had appeared fit and healthy before the incident last May. But a post-mortem
A TRAIN driver who went into heart failure at the bottom of the sea off Swanage could have died at any time, an inquest has heard. Sports diver James Parsons, 51, of Alderney in Poole, had appeared fit and healthy before the incident last May. But a post-mortem
Swanage and Wareham deservedly notched a first away win of the season after a spirited second-half fightback saw them edge Keynsham 18-16. After two consecutive draws in South West Division One, Swans were in desperate need of a morale-boosting victory
PLANS to axe all bus services from homes in Dorchester to the town centre sparked fury today. Operator First Southern National has announced the cuts for the four town routes from Poundbury, Castle Park, Manor Park and Fordington. The firm blamed the
A WEYMOUTH school in danger of closing was celebrating today after its controversial expansion plans won the backing of the borough council. But the decision means disappointment for allotment holders as six plots on council-owned land behind Beechcroft
WANTED: Lighthouse, windmill or similar for bohemian male, 35, who also happens to be a bit of a Jonathan Creek fan. Market trader John Osbourne reckons it is time for a change after getting fed up with living in bed and breakfast accommodation. But a
BIDDERS will be going potty when one of the largest collections of Staffordshire figures to go under the hammer in recent years is put up for auction in Dorchester later this month. The collection includes some rare figures which organisers expect to
A LIFE-SIZE sculpture may be carved at Dorchester's new cemetery at Poundbury to mark the graves of children. Councillors have asked artists to draw up designs for a work to form the centrepiece of a children's burial area for the innovative project.
ROAD-users are still not heeding the message to drive carefully in the New Forest. In the first 10 days of 2002 two ponies were killed in hit-and-run incidents. The first incident happened on January 8 when a bay filly had to be destroyed after it was
A CASH reward could soon be posted in an attempt to halt a growing trend of petty arson attacks in a New Forest town. Fordingbridge councillors are desperate to stop escalating outbreaks of vandalism and yobbish behaviour, which recently saw two telephone
