Dorset is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south-east, the English Channel to the south, and Devon to the west. The largest settlement is Bournemouth, and the county town is Dorchester.
Somerset is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east and the north-east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Bath, and the county town is Taunton.
Bournemouth is a coastal resort town on the south coast in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. The town's urban subdivision had a population of 187,503 at the 2011 census making it the largest town in the county; the town is part of the South East Dorset conurbation, which has a population of 465,000.
Christchurch is a town and civil parish on the south coast of Dorset, England. The parish had a population of 31,372 in 2021. It adjoins Bournemouth to the west, with the New Forest to the east. Part of the historic county of Hampshire, Christchurch was a borough within the administrative county of Dorset from 1974 until 2019, when it became part of the new Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority.
The Isle of Portland is a tied island, 6 kilometres (4 mi) long by 2.7 kilometres (1.7 mi) wide, in the English Channel. The southern tip, Portland Bill, lies 8 kilometres (5 mi) south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A barrier beach called Chesil Beach joins Portland with mainland England. The A354 road passes down the Portland end of the beach and then over the Fleet Lagoon by bridge to the mainland. The population of Portland is 13,417.
Kimmeridge is a small village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula on the English Channel coast in Dorset, England. It is situated about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south of Wareham and 7 miles (11 km) west of Swanage. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil parish was 90.
Swanage is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately 6+1⁄4 miles (10 km) south of Poole and 25 miles (40 km) east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 9,601. Nearby are Ballard Down and Old Harry Rocks, with Studland Bay and Poole Harbour to the north. Within the parish are Durlston Bay and Durlston Country Park to the south of the town. The parish also includes the areas of Herston, just to the west of the town, and Durlston, just to the south.
James Philip Knight, Baron Knight of Weymouth, is a British politician who served as Minister for the South West and Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party and Co-operative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dorset from 2001 to 2010.
Dorset County Council was a non-metropolitan county in England. Elections were first held on 23 January 1889, thereafter elections were held every three years, with all members being elected by the first past the post system of election on the same day. Later, the cycle was changed to one election in every four years, and the last such election was in 2017. There were also occasional by-elections, the last of which took place in December 2016.
Dorset County Council (DCC) was the county council for the county of Dorset in England. It provided the upper tier of local government, below which were district councils, and town and parish councils. The county council had 46 elected councillors and was based at County Hall in Dorchester. The council was abolished on 31 March 2019 as part of structural changes to local government in Dorset.
Weymouth is a sea-side town and civil parish in the Dorset district, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, on the English Channel coast of England. Situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey, 11 km (7 mi) south of the county town of Dorchester, Weymouth had a population of 53,427 in 2021. It is the third-largest settlement in Dorset after Bournemouth and Poole. The greater Weymouth urban area has a population of 72,802.
East Dorset District Council in Dorset, England existed from 1973 to 2019, when it was abolished and subsumed into Dorset Council.
An election to Dorset County Council took place on 2 May 2013 as part of the United Kingdom local elections. 45 councillors were elected from 42 electoral divisions, which returned either one or two county councillors each by first-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office. The electoral divisions were the same as those used at the previous election in 2009. No elections were held in Bournemouth or Poole, which are unitary authorities outside the area covered by the County Council. The election saw the Conservative Party maintain overall control of the council.
The 2007 East Dorset District Council election took place on 3 May 2007 to elect members of East Dorset District Council in Dorset, England. The whole council was up for election and the Conservative Party stayed in overall control of the council.
The 2011 East Dorset District Council election took place on 5 May 2011 to elect members of East Dorset District Council in Dorset, England. The whole council was up for election and the Conservative Party stayed in overall control of the council.
The 2015 West Dorset District Council election was held on Thursday 7 May 2015 to elect councillors to West Dorset District Council in England. It took place on the same day as the general election other district council elections in the United Kingdom. A series of boundary changes saw the number of councillors reduced from 48 to 44.
The 2015 East Dorset District Council election took place on 7 May 2015 in order to elect members of the East Dorset District Council in Dorset, England. The whole council was up for election after boundary changes reduced the number of seats by seven. The Conservative Party stayed in overall control of the council.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. It was created on 1 April 2019 by the merger of the areas that were previously administered by the unitary authorities of Bournemouth and Poole, and the non-metropolitan district of Christchurch. The authority covers much of the area of the South Dorset conurbation.
Dorset Council is a unitary local authority for the district of Dorset in England, encompassing most of the area of the county of the same name, Dorset. Created in April 2019, the council was formed when the county moved from a two-tier county council and district council system to a one-tier system, with the county divided into two districts administered by two independent unitary authorities – Dorset district and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole district.
Dorset Council is the local authority for the unitary authority of Dorset in England. There are 82 councillors, who are elected every four years.
