Dorchester Library

Dorchester's library is an excellent community resource, not just for reading but for accessing many different forms of information, education, and leisure activities. My daughter has been volunteering as a helper for the summer reading challenge. Children aged 12 and under are invited to take part, and are offered stickers and medals as incentives. I visited the library myself this morning and saw many enthusiastic young readers heading towards the very well stocked children's section.

I had a reserved item to collect. Recently I have taken advantage of the digital audio book loan, using the Overdrive app on my i-phone. The service has improved since I first started using it some years ago, and now offers a far better selection of titles. I was able to download several audio books to take away with me whilst travelling.

I was extremely surprised however to learn that the free dance class offered to children age 7-12 was not well attended this morning. I was always very glad of any quality supervised activity for my children when they were younger, and often paid for them to attend classes through the summer holidays.

Dorchester Police also have a contact point at the library on Mondays and Thursdays from 10am until 2pm, and offer services such as free bike marking events.

I shall be supporting the Dorchester BID by doing a few ambassador shifts throughout August, it is good to hear from visitors how welcome they feel when visiting the town. There is another free activity organised for young people this summer. The Super Sleuth quiz is good fun for the family. An entry form can be collected from the Tourist Information Centre in Trinity Street, the quiz involves photo clues around the streets of Dorchester.

PC in the Library

Thought I would pop in and have a chat with Dorchester Police this morning in the towns lovely new Library. The Safer Neighbourhood team are regularly accesible for the public to talk to there, and have a Twitter feed which tells you when they will be there. I talked about my concerns regarding the Market car park, and it appears that it is now locked during the night. The prices in the car parks are due to be increased. The Town Council obviously think that it  may be detrimental to the Brewery Square restaurants to lock the near covered car park space at night so are deciding to leave it unlocked. My concern is that the car club that I previously wrote about in my earlier post may become more of a nuisance to residents during the night.  The people who are meeting here are not all local, and advertise their meeting via social media. They have the opportunity to meet in a covered lit facility, yet do not contribute to any local council taxes. I have written today to the Town Council.
The Library is a great new facility for our town, and it was good to see it busy this morning! It's a very good to place to visit on a rainy day in February!

Dorchester Police Safer Neighbourhood twitter

Link to Dorsetforyou Library page

New car park charges, report from Dorset Echo