Dorset Council

Bins, council tax and planning, and what the council covers

Dorset Council is the one council for Dorset: there is no county council above it, so it runs bins, council tax and planning, and schools, roads and social care. ONS places 13,275 postcodes in use in Dorset, in 32 postcode districts across 6 postcode areas.

77% of homes and businesses in Dorset can get gigabit broadband, Ofcom says. The Environment Agency puts 4,594 homes and businesses in Dorset in an area at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.

Its own pages listed: 26
Postcodes in use: 13,275
Postcode districts: 32
Towns and villages: 34

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS) Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026. See all our data sources

Its website

Dorset Council

dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

Name and website as GOV.UK gives them.

Do it on Dorset Council's own website

Each link goes straight to the page on the council's own website for that task. We opened every one on 14 October 2026.

Bins and recycling

Council tax

Planning and building

Housing

Roads and parking

Report a problem

Schools

Care, support and libraries

Councillors, voting and complaints

The pages are the ones GOV.UK lists for Dorset Council. GOV.UK lists 27. When we opened them on 14 October 2026, 1 page had gone (missing, or moved to a page about something else). We left it out rather than send you to a page we could not see. If one has moved since, tell us.

What broadband can you get in Dorset?

Across Dorset, 77% of homes and businesses can get gigabit broadband and 76% full fibre, Ofcom says.

Full fibre76% can get it

Gigabit (1,000 Mbit/s)77% can get it

Superfast (30 Mbit/s or more)98% can get it

Cannot get decent broadband (10 Mbit/s)Under 1%

For one street, look up its postcode: each postcode page has its own figures. A provider's checker answers for one address.

Source: Ofcom, Connected Nations, Spring 2026, data for January 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0. How we use it

How much is council tax in Dorset?

Band D for 2026‑27: £2,765 a year

Every other band is a fixed share of Band D, set in law. Band A is two thirds of it; band H is twice it.

Band	A year
Band A	£1,843
Band B	£2,151
Band C	£2,458
Band D	£2,765
Band E	£3,379
Band F	£3,994
Band G	£4,608
Band H	£5,530

Band D is the average across the area, including the county council, police, fire and combined authority charges, and parish or town council charges, so a home's own bill can be a little different. Bands other than D are worked out by us from Band D and rounded to the pound. A home's bill also takes off any discount, such as 25% for one adult living alone.

Check one home's band on GOV.UK

Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027, Table 10, published 25 March 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0. How we use it

How many homes in Dorset are at risk of flooding?

Across Dorset, the Environment Agency puts 4,594 homes and businesses in an area at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, at 1,586 postcodes with any property at risk.

Homes and businesses in an area at risk, at 1,586 postcodes High: 2,848Medium: 1,746Low: 7,192Very low: 1,851

High: 3.3% or more a year (1 in 30). Medium: 1% to 3.3% a year. Low: 0.1% to 1% a year. Very low: under 0.1% a year (1 in 1,000). Each band is the chance of flooding in any one year.

Homes and businesses in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, as the Environment Agency counts them. It leaves out surface water, groundwater and sewers. Each postcode page has its own figures and its flood warning areas.

Source: Environment Agency, Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea (postcodes in areas at risk), published 6 July 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0. How we use it

Surface water

In Dorset the Environment Agency counts 4,861 properties at high risk of flooding from surface water (1.9% of all its properties), 4,144 at medium risk (1.7%) and 12,509 at low risk (5%). Surface water is rain that cannot drain away fast enough.

Source: Environment Agency, Risk of Flooding from Surface Water, properties at risk by local authority, version 2025-09, listed 18 September 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0. How we use it

Postcode districts with postcodes in Dorset

Counted from the ONS Postcode Directory. A postcode district is drawn for sorting post, so many cross a council's edge.

Its postcode areas

BA postcode area: Bath, postcodes in use here:42 of 15,524 BH postcode area: Bournemouth, postcodes in use here:4,269 of 15,253 DT postcode area: Dorchester, postcodes in use here:7,693 of 7,945 EX postcode area: Exeter, postcodes in use here:5 of 22,913 SP postcode area: Salisbury, postcodes in use here:1,208 of 8,753 TA postcode area: Taunton, postcodes in use here:58 of 12,113

Beside each area: how many of its postcodes in use are in Dorset.

Towns and villages

The 24 with the most postcodes in Dorset, of 34. Browse places A to Z.

Is an address in Dorset?

A council's edge does not follow postcodes exactly. Check the postcode.

All councils, A to Z

What Dorset covers: Office for National Statistics (ONS) Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026. Its name, website and own pages: GOV.UK, Local authority services, downloaded 14 October 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0; every link opened on 14 October 2026. See all our data sources

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