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.

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
Blandford	7.2	6.7	8.2	7.2	4.2	n/a	4.0	1.8
DCC Dorset	6.6	6.6	6.5	5.7	4.4	n/a	4.1	3.8
South West	14.8	12.3	10.7	8.9	8.4	n/a	8.2	7.6
England and Wales	20.0	18.6 (GB)	14.4	13.5	13.1	n/a	12.2	11.6

Note: Due to low number of burglary rates for small geographical areas, for example towns, it may fluctuate significantly from one year to another.
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.

Population

Latest population figure (2010 mid- year estimate) for the town is 9,190

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

Housing growth

Year	98	99	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Housing development	69	34	85	84	69	85	186	141	58	36	31	83	48

The 2001 Census records 4,524 dwellings in Blandford.

Since 2001, a further 737 units have been built giving a total of 5,261 dwellings.At March 2010, a further 420 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, 2007

(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	188	188	177	201	69	145	188	131
Blandford Hilltop	208	171	216	205	86	135	174	200
Blandford Langton St Leonards	140	131	102	120	50	142	57	187
Blandford Old Town	21	38	16	28	158	117	9	47
Blandford Station	62	32	84	41	76	158	76	65

LSOA = Lower Super Output Area (minimum 400 households or 1,000 population).

Index of deprivation, 2010

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

Average house prices

Dwelling type	Average Price July - Sept 2009	Average Price July - Sept 2010	July - Sept 2010 (sales)
Detached	£247,573	£259,437	8
Semi-detached	£192,156	£197,620	12
Terraced	£172,638	£152,759	22
Flats/maisonettes	£101,491	£113,050	10

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

Area:

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

Local authority revenue

Council tax band D for year	Council tax payable
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)

Population 2010 - Mid Year Estimates

Population	DCC Dorset	Blandford
Resident Population	404,790	9,190
Males	196,420	4,590
Females	208,370	4,600

Source:ONS

Age Structure (%) 2010 Mid Year Estimates

Age range	DCC Dorset	Blandford
0-15	17.0	19.4
16+17	2.7	2.8
18-44	25.4	29.0
45-59	20.9	21.0
60-84	30.0	25.0
85+	3.9	2.9

Source:ONS

Ethnicity: (%) 2001 Census

Ethnicity	DCC Dorset	Blanford
White British	96.8	96.5
BME	3.2	3.5

Health: 2001 Census

Health category	Dorset	Blandford
% with Long-term Illness / Disability	19.2	20.4
Health: % Good	68.1	66.3
Health: % Not Good	8.4	8.1
% Providing Unpaid Care	10.8	11.7

Poverty indicators: Housing/Council Tax Benefit, 2009

Benefit population	Dorset	Blandford
as a % of total town population	13.6	14.0

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.

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).

Unemployment % (persons)

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)

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

2009 Employment

Total number of people working in the town: 4,200
Number of Firms (excluding self employed): 370

Work pattern	percentage
Full-time	57%
Part-time	43%

Type of employment	%
Manufacturing and other non service	16
Construction	4
Accommodation & Food Service activities	6
Other Services	4
Distribution including motor	20
Finance and business services	15
Public administration, Ed and Health	36

Source: Business Register and Employment Survey, 2009, 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	2000	2005	2008	2009	2010	2009	2008	2005	2000	1990	1983
									1 Year	2 year	5 Years	10 Years	20 Years	27 Years
A354	Milborne St. Andrew	2,900	3,900	4,700	5,700	5,700	5,700	5,200	-9%	-9%	-9%	11%	33%	79%
A357	West of Shillingstone	4,700	5,800	6,200	6,700	6,600	6,700	6,800	1%	3%	1%	10%	17%	45%
C13	Stourpaine	2,800	4,000	5,400	6,200	6,300	6,300	6,300	0%	0%	2%	17%	58%	125%
A350	Iwerne Minster	2,400	3,100	2,900	3,000	3,000	3,000	2,800	-7%	-7%	-7%	-3%	-10%	17%
A354	Canada Farm	2,900	4,700	5,100	5,300	5,500	5,200	5,200	0%	-5%	-2%	2%	11%	79%
B3082	Badbury Rings	4,000	5,600	6,600	7,800	7,100	7,100	7,200	1%	1%	-8%	9%	29%	80%
A350	Spetisbury	5,400	9,100	10,500	10,400	10,700	10,600	10,400	-2%	-3%	0%	-1%	14%	93%
A350	Blandford Bypass, (North)	Not Built	6,000	8,000	8,900	9,000	9,000	9,400	4%	4%	6%	18%	57%	n/a
A350	Blandford Bypass, (N.East)	Not Built	8,600	12,600	14,700	15,200	14,900	14,000	-6%	-8%	-5%	11%	63%	n/a
A354	Blandford Bypass, (East)	Not Built	11,400	15,700	20,000	19,400	19,000	18,600	-2%	-4%	-7%	18%	63%	n/a
A354	Blandford Bypass(S.East)	Not Built	10,600	16,400	19,800	19,800	19,200	19,000	-1%	-4%	-4%	16%	79%	n/a
A354	Blandford Bypass, (South)	Not Built	4,800	7,600	9,100	9,200	9,200	8,800	-4%	-4%	-3%	16%	83%	n/a
B3082	Milldown Road - Blandford	n/a	n/a	n/a	5,100	5,100	5,400	4,300	-20%	-16%	-16%	n/a	n/a	n/a
C31	West Street - Blandford	n/a	n/a	n/a	9,500	9,100	9,600	9,300	-3%	2%	-2%	n/a	n/a	n/a
C13	Salisbury Road, Blandford	n/a	n/a	n/a	5,700	5,300	5,000	5,100	2%	-4%	-11%	n/a	n/a	n/a