Oliver Letwin MP

For several years now, I have been working with the Dorset Broadcasting Action Group to promote, among other things, the idea of a proper BBC local radio station for Dorset. To describe our efforts as making “slow progress” would be perhaps too flattering so far. After enormous numbers of hours of meetings and surveys and [...]

I don’t know whether any readers of this column have the same experience, but I often find myself wondering whether something that needs to happen really will ever happen.

I had this feeling of doubt some while back, when it was first suggested to me by some business people in Dorchester that we really ought to [...]

Any regular reader of this column will, I hope, derive from it some additional information about the many remarkable voluntary activities that go on in and around Dorchester.

This week, I can reveal another such effort about which I recently learnt for the first time. This is the Mind Your Head Challenge.

The concept sounds positively science-fictional. [...]

Last week, I found myself visiting a “care farm” near Dorchester. What, you might ask, is a “care farm”?

Answer: it is a farm designed to provide much needed occupation and care for people who need it – in this case, people with learning disabilities.

The farm itself is beautifully laid out, and it was wonderful to [...]

I see that a recent survey discovered an interesting fact about Dorchester residents.

When asked what they most disliked about the current condition of the town, 19% of those interviewed apparently commented on litter, dog mess and fly tipping.

Admittedly, the survey was conducted by the Stop the Drop group at their stand in South Street, and [...]

I notice that a new Waitrose has opened at Poundbury, bringing some much needed additional employment. 

This is of course only a small part of the enterprises that have been attracted to West Dorset by the development at Poundbury.

I know that people have differing views about the architecture of the new Poundbury development – though I [...]

Tomorrow is, of course, Remembrance Sunday.

Each of us will have our own thoughts and memories – for some, intensely direct and poignant; for others, more general and less poignant.

As I sit in my car at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, listening to the striking of Big Ben on Radio [...]

Where on dry land does one find boats?

At least one of the answers to this question is that boats are found on dry land when they are BOATs – otherwise known as byways open to all traffic.

In ordinary English, a BOAT is a green lane or drove or bridleway in the countryside that is discovered [...]

Have you ever thought of sharing your home?

This question came up at a meeting I attended in Dorchester recently.

The idea sounds odd at first – but it’s actually very interesting. The suggestion is that there may well be people who, for one reason or another, are alone in their homes, have some spare room, and [...]