Blandford

Blandford enjoys the twin benefits of being located within forty minutes drive of the Bournemouth and Poole conurbation while retaining its traditional market town character, embellished by its Georgian centre. The town is the administrative centre of North Dorset and provides a range of shopping, health, education and sporting facilities.

Communications

Blandford is well positioned at the junction of the A350, linking the port of Poole with the M4 to the north, and the A354 Salisbury to Dorchester road. The town has no rail link.

Population

Latest population figure (2011 Census) for the town is 10,325

Age	Blandford (number)	Blandford (%)	Dorset-DCC area (%)	England & Wales (%)
0-4	662	6.4	4.7	6.2
5-9	493	4.8	4.8	5.6
10-14	514	5.0	5.6	5.8
15-19	586	5.7	5.8	6.3
20-24	633	6.1	4.7	6.8
25-29	638	6.2	4.1	6.8
30-34	679	6.6	4.3	6.6
35-39	645	6.2	5.2	6.7
40-44	742	7.2	6.6	7.3
45-49	778	7.5	7.3	7.3
50-54	659	6.4	6.9	6.4
55-59	665	6.4	6.6	5.7
60-64	701	6.8	8.0	6.0
65-69	512	5.0	6.9	4.8
70-74	423	4.1	5.6	3.9
75-79	353	3.4	4.9	3.2
80-84	329	3.2	3.9	2.4
85+	313	3.0	3.9	2.2
total	10,325	100	100	100

selected age groups

Age Group	Blandford (number)	Blandford (%)	Dorset-DCC area (%)	England & Wales (%)
Young people 0 to 17	2,021	19.6	18.8	21.3
Young adults 18 to 29	1,505	14.6	10.9	16.2
Older people 65 plus	1,930	18.7	25.2	16.4

Source: Office for National Statistics(ONS, 2011 Census)

Historic Population

Year	1921	1931	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001	2011
Census population (enumerated)	-	3,370	3,670	3,570	3,650	3,920	7,850	8,760	10,325

Source: ONS

Education

Blandford pyramid area:
Eight primary schools, one secondary school. The upper school for the area is Blandford School (1,106 pupils- 2010). View data on Blandford School (opens in a new window)

Commercial land

Between 1994-2010, 3.3 hectares of industrial land has been developed in Blandford. The total area of land with permission and allocated in local plans is 9.1 hectares.

Crime

Domestic burglaries

Rate per 1,000 households

Area	2002/03	2003/04	2004/05	2005/06	2006/07	2007/08	2008/2009	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12
Blandford	7.2	6.7	8.2	7.2	4.2	n/a	4.0	1.8	6.0	3.5
DCC Dorset	6.6	6.6	6.5	5.7	4.4	n/a	4.1	3.8	3.7	3.4
South West	14.8	12.3	10.7	8.9	8.4	n/a	8.2	7.6	7.2	7.0
England and Wales	20.0	18.6 (GB)	14.4	13.5	13.1	n/a	12.2	11.6	11.1	10.5

Please note: Due to the low prevailing level of offences, and the often sporadic nature of burglary, rates for small geographical areas can vary significantly from year to year
Source: Dorset County Council

Other sources of crime data

Access the Police crime mapping Blandford (opens in a new window) where you can find crime data on a month by month basis (starting December 2010) mapped to neighbourhood and street level. This looks at the crime types of burglary, anti-social behaviour, robbery, vehicle crime, violent crime and other crime. Note this comprehensive and up-to-date database only looks at numbers of crimes and not crime rates for individual crimes. It does give an overall crime rate (per 1,000 people) for the neighbourhood.

Housing growth

Year	98	99	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Housing development	69	34	85	84	69	85	186	141	74	36	31	83	48	76	103

The 2011 Census records 4,703 dwellings in Blandford(parish).

Since 2011, a further 103 units have been built giving a total of 4,806 dwellings. At March 2012, a further 302 units have permission and 0 have been allocated in local plans

Note: Figures allow for losses from re-development etc. Method revised 2009

Index of deprivation, 2010

(Figures show LSOA ranking out of 247 LSOAs in Dorset with 1 being the most deprived)

LSOA	Multiple	Income	Employment	Health	Education & Skills	Housing & services	Crime	Living
Blandford Damory Down	171	148	123	125	56	221	231	131
Blandford Hilltop	204	163	203	178	72	190	146	225
Blandford Langton St Leonards	106	106	91	57	25	227	48	195
Blandford Old Town	23	28	22	17	84	200	13	46
Blandford Station	55	34	50	34	67	216	78	70

Click here for detailed information and mapping of the The Index of Deprivation, 2010

Source: DCLG

Poverty Indicators: Housing/Council Tax Benefit: March2013

Settlement	Benefit Population	Total Population	% Benefit Population (% of total settlement population)
Alderholt	282	3,171	8.9%
Beaminster	547	3,136	17.4%
Bere Regis	305	1,745	17.5%
Blandford	1,657	10,325	16.0%
Bridport	2,414	13,568	17.8%
Burton	631	4,177	15.1%
Charminster/Charlton Down	379	2,940	12.9%
Chickerell	895	5,515	16.2%
Christchurch	7,747	47,700	16.2%
Colehill	538	6,907	7.8%
Corfe Castle	190	1,355	14.0%
Corfe Mullen	948	10,133	9.4%
Crossways	385	2,267	17.0%
Dorchester	2,987	19,060	15.7%
Ferndown	2,300	17,839	12.9%
Gillingham	1,697	11,756	14.4%
Lyme Regis	527	3,671	14.4%
Lytchett Matravers	370	3,424	10.8%
Lytchett Minster/Upton	1,338	7,983	16.8%
Marnhull	245	1,998	12.3%
Portland	2,880	12,844	22.4%
Sandford	381	2,774	13.7%
Shaftesbury	969	7,314	13.2%
Sherborne	1,567	9,523	16.5%
St Leonards & St Ives	536	6,859	7.8%
Stalbridge	333	2,698	12.3%
Sturminster Marshall	199	1,969	10.1%
Sturminster Newton	664	4,292	15.5%
Swanage	1,571	9,601	16.4%
Verwood	1,653	14,852	11.1%
Wareham	907	5,496	16.5%
West Moors	981	7,561	13.0%
Weymouth	11,079	52,256	21.2%
Wimborne	1,268	6,790	18.7%
Wool	771	5,310	14.5%
Dorset ( DCC area)	-	-	-

Source: DCC

Socio-economic classifications: 2010 ACORN

Classifications	Dorset	Blandford
% Wealthy Achievers	40.1	19.6
% Urban Prosperity	7.1	6.9
% Comfortably Off	33.2	35.9
% Moderate Means	9.2	14.4
% Hard Pressed	10.2	23.2
% unclassified	0.2	0.1

ACORN is a geodemographic segmentation of the UK's population which segments small neighbourhoods, postcodes, or consumer households into five categories, 17 groups and 56 types.
The five higher level categories, wealthy achievers, urban prosperity, comfortably off, moderate means and hard pressed are shown above.

A full ACORN profile of the town is available, including maps of the five wards in the town. Access Blandford ACORN Profile (pdf, 2Mb) (opens in a new window) here.

Average house prices

Dwelling type	(average price) July - Sept 2009	(average price) July - Sept 2010	July - Sept 2010 (sales)	(average price) July-Sept 2012	July-Sept 2012 (sales)
Detached	£247,573	£259,437	8	£284,366	12
Semi-detached	£192,156	£197,620	12	n/a	n/a
Terraced	£172,638	£152,759	22	£168,637	12
Flats/maisonettes	£101,491	£113,050	10	£102,904	11

Land Registry average prices. Sales for postcode sector DT11 7
(Prices may be affected by low number of sales)

Tenure - 2011 Census

% of all households

Area	Owner occupied (%)	Shared ownership (%)	Social rented (%)	Private rented (%)	Living rent free (%)
Blandford	64.9	0.7	18.4	14.8	1.2

Source: ONS

Area:

Approx. 'built-up' area = 310 hectares (766 acres)

Local authority revenue

Council tax band D for year	Council tax payable
12/13	£1,663.80
11/12	-
10/11	£1,663.80
09/10	£1,615.64
08/09	£1,554.65
07/08	£1,481.89
06/07	£1,402.86
05/06	£1,349.13
04/05	£1,276.09
03/04	£1,199.44
02/03	£1,040.97
01/02	£955.36
00/01	£885.38

Second/holiday and empty homes, 2011

Total dwellings on Council Tax Register	4,623
Total number of second homes	30
Second homes as a % of total dwellings	0.67
Total number of long term empty properties	45
Empty homes as a % of total dwellings	0.93

Source: Council Tax Register (parish figure, rounded)

Ethnicity (%) - 2011Census

	Blandford	North Dorset	Dorset (DCC area)
% white British	94.1	94.7	95.5
% Black and minority ethnic groups (BME)	5.9	5.3	4.5

Source: Office for National Statistics, 2011 Census

Country of birth (%) - 2011 Census

	Blandford	North Dorset	Dorset (DCC area)
% born in England	89.3	89.7	91.0
% born rest of UK	3.4	3.4	3.4
% born in Rep of IRE	0.4	0.3	0.4
% born EU (member countries in 2001)	2.2	1.6	1.3
% born EU (Accession countries April 2001 to March 2011)	1.1	1.3	0.7
% born elsewhere	3.6	3.6	3.1

Source: Office for National Statistics, 2011 Census

Health - 2011 Census (% of population)

Health Limiting day-to-day Activities

	Blandford	North Dorset	Dorset (DCC area)
Day-to-day activities limited a lot (%)	8.0	7.1	8.6
limited a little(%)	10.1	10.4	11.5
not limited(%)	81.9	82.5	79.9
limited a lot: Age 16 to 64(%)	3.1	2.6	2.9
limited a little: Age 16 to 64(%)	4.6	4.2	4.5
not limited: Age 16 to 64(%)	56.3	53.6	51.1

General Health

	Blandford	North Dorset	Dorset (DCC area)
Very good health(%)	45.9	47.8	44.6
Good health(%)	35.2	35.2	35.9
Fair health(%)	14.4	12.8	14.5
Bad health(%)	3.6	3.3	3.9
Very bad health(%)	0.9	0.8	1.1

Provision of Unpaid Care

	Blandford	North Dorset	Dorset (DCC area)
Provides no unpaid care(%)	89.7	89.4	88.1
Provides 1 to 19 hours unpaid care a week(%)	6.8	7.3	8.1
Provides 20 to 49 hours unpaid care a week(%)	1.2	1.1	1.3
Provides 50 or more hours unpaid care a week(%)	2.2	2.2	2.5

Source: ONS 2011 Census

Retail profile - total town floorspace

110 shops/105,000 sq.ft. (2005)

Town centre:

Mainly local shops but includes nationals such as Argos, Boots, Somerfield, Homebase (out of town centre), W H Smiths, and Tesco (out of town centre)

Catchment population:

The shopping catchment for Blandford (major food shopping) extends around eight miles in a north east & south west direction, but only about five miles north west and south east. The population within the catchment is around 24,200 (mid 2001).

Library - Number of issues of books etc

Library	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
Blandford Library	110,354	109,475	101,647	96,171

Source Dorset County Council

Industrial estates

Blandford Heights Industrial Estate (9.47h), Clump Farm Industrial Estate (1.30h), Holland Way Industrial Estate (7.32h), Uplands Industrial Park (1.34h), Sunrise Business Park (5.6h).

Unemployment % (persons)

Proportion of resident population aged 16-64 and actual number

Year	Male	Female	Total
July 1997	2.5 (58)	1.3 (26)	2.0 (84)
July 1998	2.6 (60)	0.8 (16)	1.8 (76)
July 1999	2.1 (47)	1.0 (21)	1.6 (68)
July 2000	1.3 (33)	0.9 (20)	1.1 (53)
July 2001	1.4 (34)	0.8 (19)	1.1 (53)
July 2002	0.9 (28)	0.4 (9)	0.7 (37)
July 2003	0.5 (16)	0.5 (14)	0.5 (30)
July 2004	1.1 (31)	0.5 (14)	0.8 (45)
July 2005	2.1 (58)	0.9 (25)	1.5 (83)
July 2006	1.3 (38)	0.6 (19)	1.0 (57)
July 2007	0.8 (23)	0.4 (11)	0.6 (34)
July 2008	0.9 (27)	0.6 (19)	0.8 (46)
July 2009	3.3 (98)	1.2 (35)	2.2 (133)
July 2010	2.3 (68)	1.4 (43)	1.8 (111)
July 2011	3.5 (91)	1.6 (43)	2.5 (134)

Of July 2009 unemployment figures, the long-term unemployed = 2.3%
Of July 2010 unemployment figures, the long-term unemployed = 11.7%
Of July 2011 unemployment figures, the long-term unemployed = 11.2%

The wider economy of the area

To see an economic profile of the wider North Dorset area follow this link to the North Dorset Economy & Labour Market Profile 2011 (pdf, 985kb) (opens in a new window) .

2010 Employment

Total number of people working in the town: 4,400
Number of Firms (excluding self employed): 370 (2009)

Work pattern	percentage
Full-time	56%
Part-time	44%

Type of employment	%
Production and construction	17
Distribution, accommodation and food	30
Other market services	10
Public Admin, education and health	39
Other services	4

Source: Business Register and Employment Survey, 2010, ONS
Figures may not sum due to rounding. All these figures exclude farm agriculture which has been suppressed

Major employers

Blandford Hospital, Bryanston School, Clayesmore senior school, Co-op, Damory Coaches, Dorset County Council, Environment Agency, Hall and Woodhouse Ltd, Hospital Metalcraft, Iracroft Ltd, North Dorset District Council, KJ Pike & Sons, Royal Signals, Signpost Housing Association, The Forum School, Tesco, Wessex Homes Park and Leisure Ltd.

Traffic counts in the wider Blandford area - Annual Average Daily Traffic

Road	Location	AADF (Annual Average Daily Traffic)						Percentage Growth Since
		1983	1990	2001	2006	2010	2011	2010	2006	2001	1990	1983
								1 Year	5 Years	10 Years	21 Years	27 Years
A354	Milborne St. Andrew	2,900	3,900	4,700	5,700	5,600	5,400	-3.6%	-5%	4%	38%	86%
A357	West of Shillingstone	4,700	5,800	6,300	6,800	6,800	6,900	1.5%	1%	10%	19%	47%
C13	Stourpaine	2,800	4,000	5,400	6,100	6,300	6,300	0.0%	3%	17%	58%	125%
A350	Iwerne Minster	2,400	3,100	3,000	3,100	2,800	2,700	-3.6%	-13%	-10%	-13%	13%
A354	Canada Farm	2,900	4,700	5,100	5,300	5,200	5,000	-3.8%	-6%	-2%	6%	72%
B3082	Badbury Rings	4,000	5,600	6,700	7,600	7,200	7,200	0.0%	-5%	7%	29%	80%
A350	Spetisbury	5,400	9,100	10,300	10,500	10,400	10,200	-1.9%	-3%	-1%	12%	89%