DORSET has not seen a reported increase in domestic abuse – according to community safety spokesman, Cllr Graham Carr-Jones.

But he says there has been an increase in calls about what he described as ‘lower level family tensions and arguments’ during lockdown.

Cllr Carr-Jones told an online meeting of the Dorset Council Cabinet that there had also been a rise in calls to Dorset police about family disputes which officers, in some cases, were investigating in more detail.

Nationally reported cases of domestic abuse and violence are said to have increased dramatically.

Mr Carr-Jones said the council, and others, were publicising where people could turn to for help, should they need to, and that there currently is capacity for refuge spaces in the county should they be needed.