Blandford Forum

And that's going to be like a competition weekend.

And Hall and Woodhouse have offered a night at the Crown in Blandford and they're going to give them a tour of Hall and Woodhouse's brewery.

So that kind of gives you an idea of some of the things that, you know, we could come up with for North Dorset.

In terms of next steps, what happens next to perhaps take some of the ideas inspired by the event you went to to make sure things happen tangibly in Shaftesbury?

There'll be a full Saturday network and eventually bookable transport for rural communities that don't have a regular service.

For us here in Shaftesbury, that could mean the return of Saturday buses to Blandford and further down the line, a Dorset version of Wiltshire Connect, allowing people in surrounding villages to arrange a journey into town.

This program will run for seven years, with the first changes planned for twenty twenty-seven.

At the October cabinet meeting, Councillor Simon Clifford, who's responsible for the authority's finances, said it was a big decision.

It is a record amount of investment that Dorset Council is going to make into public transport.

There's one particular improvement at the top of Shaftesbury Dorset Councillor Derek Beer's wish list.

Well, hopefully, we'll be able to reinstate the, um, the Saturday service from Shaftesbury to Blandford.

That-- Um, I-I'm hoping we can do that sooner, but that, that's right at the top of the list.