The annual Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival took place in rural Dorset, over the weekend of 17-19 July 2026. As over the last two years, Dorset for Europe were there, with a stand in the ‘martyr’s marquee.’ We’re happy to report that our stand was very well attended on both Saturday and, particularly, on Sunday, when entry […]
Bournemouth and Poole Greenpeace calls on Government to “Make Polluters Pay” as Shell announces bumper profits. Activists from Bournemouth and Poole Greenpeace staged protests outside two Shell petrol stations on July 30, 2026, calling on the government to make major fossil fuel companies pay for the damage caused by the climate crisis. Campaigners gathered outside […]
The UK experienced its wettest winter in over a century in 2023–24. Scientists described it as a stark reminder of the impacts of climate change, which continued in the wet winter of 2025-26. On Thursday 26 June, Extinction Rebellion Wimborne will be hosting a free public screening of ‘The People’s Emergency Briefing’ at the Allendale […]
Dorset CPRE, the Dorset branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is celebrating CPRE’s centenary and plans to mark the milestone anniversary by planting hundreds of trees this autumn, including endangered species. Planting more trees is essential to offset climate change, restore wetlands, and replace trees in Dorset afflicted by disease, such as ash […]
In June 2026, it will be a full ten years since that fateful referendum led to Brexit! National Rejoin March (NRM) plans to mark the occasion in two ways. First, a team plans to walk from London to Brussels, where they will hand a book of messages from supporters to the EU Parliament. Second, the […]
Dear Editor Last year, Church Beach in Lyme Regis was successfully re-designated as a bathing beach after a concerted effort by River Lim Action (RLA), Lyme Regis Bluetits and others. This case study is now being used by Surfers Against Sewage as part of a legal challenge to changes to government regulations on the designation […]
I loved living in New Zealand, but I missed the understated beauty of the West Country countryside. A lot of that landscape is man-made. Centuries-old agricultural practices created a patchwork of fields, hedges, heathland and forest, to which native wildlife adapted. Unlike countries such as the United States, where agricultural fields can stretch uninterrupted for […]
This December, Bournemouth Foodbank is bringing festive cheer to communities across the town, with a full programme of events and the launch of a brand-new hub in Winton, St Luke’s Hub. Across two weekends — 6–7 December and 20–21 December — from 10am to 4pm, the Foodbank will be hosting Festive Fun at the Sovereign Centre. Families […]
In freezing temperatures on Thursday 20 November 2025, and again in persistent rain on Sunday, members of Extinction Rebellion (XR) Wimborne gathered on the footbridge over the River Allen near Wimborne Library to mark COP30 by reading aloud real testimonies from people already living with the devastating impacts of climate breakdown. The group’s action aimed […]
Yes, young people have too much pressure and expectation and it feels like nobody listens to you. We get it and we want to help. Share your voice, get published, and pocket some (not much) cash in the South West Future Journalists Awards. West Country Voices, Totnes Pulse and the PRSD have put their collective […]
There was no serious tradition of cider-making in New Zealand [where the author lived for several years before returning to Dorset]. I pretty much gave up drinking cider there, as it was usually too sweet. Though I love to drink cider, West Country cider-making is something I knew little about. I probably know more about […]
For 51 weeks of the year, Tolpuddle is a sleepy, picturesque village nestling quietly in the South Dorset countryside – but for one weekend each July, it erupts! The Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival is loud, busy, musical, thoughtful and, often, offers an insightful celebration of trade unionism. It is held in remembrance of the events that […]
We have covered the resistance to the incinerator plans before, but, sadly, it seems people have to protest yet again. Local residents are angry that the BCP Planning Committee have made a summary recommendation to grant permission for MVV to build their proposed waste incinerator in Canford. The BCP Planning Committee are meeting at 1pm […]
Simon Polkinghorn’s art exhibition, ‘The Spell’: An Enquiry into Modern Absurdity, inspires deep reflection in a dystopian age Simon Polkinghorn is a professional artist based at Sandy Hill Arts in the picturesque village of Corfe Castle, Dorset. His artwork portfolio is as varied as it is thought-provoking, ranging from nature-inspired compositions capturing local scenery and […]
Victory in Europe! On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered, ending WW11 in Europe. I was 10 years old and remember the street parties well. People were dancing and singing, relieved that things could return to the way they were six years ago. No more sleepless nights waiting for the air raid sirens and the rush […]
Environmental groups, local organisations and concerned residents, demonstrated on April 3, 2025, outside Bournemouth’s Civic Centre where the Planning Committee were meeting, to oppose the granting of planning permission for a waste incinerator in Canford. The demonstrators held placards, signs and banners which showed their opposition to the incinerator. There were also drummers and singing. […]
On Saturday, March 29, 2025, Extinction Rebellion Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (XR BCP) and Extinction Rebellion Wimborne (XRW) joined forces in a powerful protest at Poole Quay, marking the second anniversary of the Poole Harbour oil spill caused by French oil company Perenco. The demonstration featured the rhythmic beats of XR BCP’s drumming band, striking […]
The River Wye catchment area has been subjected to significant ecological harm due to intensive poultry farming, with rising levels of phosphorus pollution leading to toxic algal blooms and the collapse of aquatic ecosystems. The River Wye, once voted the nation’s UK’s favourite river, is on the brink of ecological collapse due to pollution primarily […]
One iconic image that is unique to Dorset is its fingerposts, the old road signs featuring a white or occasionally red metal roundel or finial. Since the Dorset CPRE grant scheme was launched in 2017, the charity has paid out £22,337.50 towards the restoration of 160 traditional fingerposts, helping to keep these local treasures and […]
When numerous small plastic pellets were spotted littering the beach at Charmouth in west Dorset, a diverse group of people, united by their love of this special place, began to delve in to the problem. After a tortuous investigation, two kinds of pellet were identified on the beach at Charmouth: nurdles, the pre-production raw material […]
Local residents joined Extinction Rebellion (XR) Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) and XR Wimborne, who once again gathered outside Bournemouth’s Civic Centre to demonstrate against the building of waste incinerators in the area. They are concerned about the detrimental effect of the proposed incinerators on local residents’ health, the local environment and increased global warming. […]
We’ve all seen them, haven’t we? The earth-shade painted, faux-timber-clad housing estates with their strips of fake grass, their crescents of executive homes in the best spots, and, overall, the dead, sterile look of a film set for the Stepford Wives. This pop-up townlet and its maze of little ‘streets’ boast dreamily bucolic names, often […]
Discussions about building a proposed waste incinerator in Canford were deferred by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole’s (BCP) planning committee in September 2024. There is no confirmation, yet, about when it may be discussed, but the committee was due to meet on November 7, 2024. On that day, concerned residents, environmental groups, and local organisations came […]
Highlighting a week of protests and actions in London and across the UK focused on the “Achilles heel” of the fossil fuel industry setting our planet on fire: their insurers. Extinction Rebellion’s (XR) major national campaign, demanding that the insurance industry stops insuring the climate criminals setting the world on fire, hit the streets of […]
Dear Editor, My example of what I believe to be an unjust car parking fine. At 10.25am I received a parking fine of £100 for parking in a disabled bay with no Blue badge displayed in my car. I had been having a coffee in Castlepoint Shopping centre, Bournemouth, for 30 minutes that morning. There […]
For the first time this year, Dorset for Europe was offered the opportunity to run a stall at the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival. Along with the stall comes the invitation to deliver a short speech to explain why we’re there and what we hope to achieve. This prompted me to gush forth an anguished tirade, wholly […]
On 15 July 2024, Extinction Rebellion groups from Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole (XR BCP), Wimborne and Purbeck, took their continuing campaign against Poole Harbour oil company, Perenco, to their offices and facility in Furzebrook. The campaign was sparked by Perenco’s spill of 200 barrels (approximately 31,600 litres) of reservoir fluid, consisting of 15 per cent crude […]
Just because the Conservatives are set to lose power nationally, they are still able to hang on to seats where the progressive vote is split and/or ambiguous, thanks to our anachronistic and undemocratic first-past-the-post system (shared only by Belarus…) Fortunately, we can turn to the big aggregator sites like www.stopthetories.vote and Best for Britain’s www.getvoting.org […]
Dear Editor, We are drawing close to the first local election since Dorset Council became a unitary authority in 2019, which the Financial Times (FT) recently dubbed as: “… the most keenly watched ‘blue wall’ battle in a crucial set of local elections on May 2.” Under the headline “Dorset Tories tell Sunak’s MPs to […]
On Thursday April 18, 2024 at 8:30am, a group of Dorset residents sat outside Bournemouth Crown Court holding what has become the most contentious sign in the UK legal system. They joined hundreds of others around England and Wales as part of the growing Defend Our Juries campaign, as they did in December 2023. That […]