A second major BID objective was realised in mid-October when an extra park and ride stop was opened.

The park and ride, provided in partnership by WDDC and DCC, has been available in Dorchester for some time now and has been growing in popularity since being extended to five days a week.

Until now the service has been limited to running between Dorchester football club car park and County hall. The good news is a new stop! Located at Dorchester market near the market café this gives park and ride users the option of a stop the opposite side of town, which has been asked for by a number of BID area businesses.

Phil Gordon, BID Project Director, said "At £1.00 per day for parking and a return trip to and from town this has to be one of the cheapest park and ride schemes in the country and although space is limited, there are plans to look at the general expansion of park and ride facilities in the Dorchester area as demand grows"

Chris Hook, Travel Plan Co-ordinator with DCC added, "Looking at ways to reduce the impact of traffic in town is important. The park and ride is part of this solution but we are also looking at what else can be done. Ideas under consideration include improving facilities for cyclists in town with bike racks, better signage and route information. These are also things that I know the BID is keen to see develop so we have a lot to talk about!"

This link will take you to the August update.

The BID has led a very successful initiative to increase Dorchester's coverage in Resort Magazine. The magazine comes out twice a year and is available free to visitors at a great many venues throughout the South. Last year Dorchester had just a single page in the Autumn/Winter edition.

This year, thanks to encouragement from the BID, twenty advertisers supported the 80,000 copy Autumn/Winter edition which meant that Dorchester received 6 pages of editorial and advertising. This compares with 1 page each for Bridport, Swanage and Poole.

This project ticks all the Town Promotion boxes and promotes the town out of season.

If this proves to be successful in terms of attracting visitors it will lay the basis for a major promotion in the 250,000 copy Summer 2009 edition.

One of the BID campaign projects comes to fruition this month. The Chamber of Commerce and the BID have been campaigning for the south end of South Street to be pedestrianised as a first step in the County Council's traffic plan for Dorchester.

This has now been agreed and the area will be pedestrianised between 9.30am and 4.30pm from November 24th this year - in plenty of time for traffic free Christmas shopping.

The following are a few of the other initiatives now under way:

The BID is funding most of the costs of Dorchester's Christmas lights and is hoping to add a surprise element to the display.

The BID helps support the Dorchester Music and Performance Group which has attracted the Dorset Young Performers Competition into the town. Heats and finals will all take place in the Corn Exchange early next year. More details at the competition website.

One BID aim is to make Dorchester a plastic free town. The profile of this campaign was raised with a bag amnesty in October. Free canvas and cotton bags signed by the winner of the design competition, Sian Jones, were handed out to shoppers bringing in plastic bags to exchange. Bag prices to retailers have been slashed in the run up to Christmas.

To stock up on bags, contact Phil at philg@dorchesterdorset.co.uk or on 07799 494886.

Dorchester gets a new website dedicated to Town Promotion.