Dorset County Council (Environment Profiles 2011)

• There are two Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) in Dorset, this was jointly third lowest with Cornwall, Torbay, and Bath and NE Somerset.

• This compares with 148 river water bodies within Dorset. Our latest assessment of these classified 2% as bad, 15% as poor, 40% as moderate and 43% as good.

• The main reasons for less than good status include: high levels of phosphate, impacted fish communities, low levels of dissolved oxygen and physical modification.

For information on the activities taking place to help your local river improve, please see the Earth Chattering pages for an interactive map and much more information.

Please note - Water bodies do not fit exactly within local authority boundaries. The figures have been derived from those water bodies whose centres are within the district in question. If all water bodies within a district had been included, double accounting would have taken place. Some water bodies have yet to be classified. For the purpose of this exercise, these have been removed from the figures published.

Source: Environment Agency  

• Land use within Dorset County area is mixed. Some district councils align with the South West and England averages e.g. green space is 90% in South West, and the average in England is 87%.

• Significant differences occur in the more urban districts within Dorset. These are Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole, and Weymouth and Portland.

• The South West average for green space is 90%, and the average in England is 87%.

• For more detailed information, please see the district pages individually.

• Dorset is the smallest county council in the South West. Devon is the largest County Council. The smallest area covered by an authority in the South West is Bournemouth.

• The ninth Local Environmental Quality Survey conducted by Keep Britain Tidy, was carried out between April 2009 and March 2010. The Summary Report key messages included:

~ Overall Standards within England remain the same as last year, with no change in the Cleansing Index score, which is 76, out of a possible 100.

~ 63% of standards for all LEQ indicators were either Good or Satisfactory.
The South East joins the South West as top performing region overall, for the first time this year.

~ The South West has been either the top performing region or joint top performing region since the 2007/08 Survey. 

• The survey carried out between April 2006 -March 2007. There is no information at County level. Please see the survey for individual district reports.

• Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) are areas of land that drain into waters polluted by nitrates, such that the ecosystem is at risk of being disturbed, or the water is likely to exceed 50 milligrams of nitrate in each litre.

• Within Dorset Councty Council, there is a significant area designated NVZ with one area of deferred slurry storage.

• NVZ regulations come fully into force on 1 Jan 2012, except in deferred Slurry storage areas which have until 1 Jan 2013.
• For more information on NVZ, please see Environment Agency pages.
• For detailed maps relating to NVZ areas, please see source pages.

Source : Environment Agency

• The map below shows the soils present within Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset.
• Soils within Bournemouth Poole and Dorset can be described as, radiating concentric rings centered on the alluvial soils close to Poole Harbour, followed by bands of shallow chalk and clay rich heavy soils as one moves from this centre point.
• Soil type is a major factor in determining the type of agriculture that can be supported. Generally light textured soils support cereals and horticulture while shallow chalk limestone soils support grazing and cereals. Clay rich heavy soils often underlie dairy pasture. Medium textured soils can support both arable and livestock farming.
• The latest (2010) DEFRA agricultural census data for Bournemouth Poole and Dorset indicates over 197 000ha  of farmed land supports over 2200 farms of which 584 are greater than 100ha in size. 12% of this farmed area is wheat - the dominant arable crop. 41% of the farmed land is permanent grass supporting over 102,000 dairy cattle, about 13% of the total dairy herd in the South West.

Source : DEFRA

• For the period April 2005-March 2010 inc, there was one incident of major impact to air, and 3 incidents of major impact to water.

• For the same period, there were also six incidents of significant impact to air, four incidents of significant impact to land and water, 11 incidents of significant impact to land, and a further 26 incidents of significant impact to water.

• For the period April 2010 - March 2011 inclusive, there were two incidents of major impact to water in Dorset County Council area. Both of these were in West Dorset District Council area.

• In addition for the same time period, there was 1 incident of significant impact to air, 2 to land, and one to water within Dorset County Council.

• During 2009/10 there were 2587* eported incidents of flytipping in Dorset, the seventh highest for a county or unitary authority in the region. This was a 16% increase from 2228 incidents in 2008/09.

* Please note: There is no County Level information available for flytipping. County level figures are aggregated from District Councils.

Please note: incidents of fly tipping are reported differently by each council. One may log black bin bags out on an incorrect day as a fly tipping incident where another council do not log this. Please be aware of these reporting discrepancies on Flycapture when looking at the data in comparison to other councils.

• Dorset County Council was not in the top ten lowest producers of residual waste produced however were doing well in the bottom half of the league table in the South West, with 520.36 kg/household. 

• In 2009/10, South Hams had the lowest level of residual waste in the South West with 341.04kg/household. The highest in the South West was Isles of Scilly Council with 1,452kg/household.     

• Recycling and composting has increased significantly in the South West, from 14.9% in 2000 / 2001 to 43.5% in 2009 / 2010.

• Dorset County Council in 2009/10 had the sixth highest amount of recycling in the South West with 49.59%.

• The highest rate of recycling in the SW was Cotswold District Council with 60.4%,  and the lowest rate in the SW was Isles of Scilly with 18.9%.

• Dorset County Council landfilled 103,893 tonnes, which was the sixth highest amount of tonnes landfilled in the South West. However, this  was also the fifth lowest percentage landfilled (47.94%) in the South West.

• Bournemouth Borough Council landfilled the least percentage waste in 2009/10 (37.8%). Plymouth City Council landfilled the largest percentage of waste in 2009/10 (64%).  Devon County Council however landfilled the largest amount in tonnes with 194,720 tonnes.