THE Conservatives have retained control of Dorset County Council – despite county council leader, Robert Gould, losing his seat.

Counts held overnight revealed that the Conservative Party won 32 of the 46 seats in yesterday’s Dorset County Council Elections.

This represents a gain of four seats.

In a shock twist, the Conservative leader of the council, Robert Gould, was defeated in his Sherborne Town seat by the Liberal Democrat candidate, Jon Andrews, by a wafer thin margin of 22 votes.

The Green Party gained an extra seat in Weymouth and Portland while the Liberal Democrats lost two county-wide and the number of Labour councillors in the council fell from three to just one.

The new makeup of Dorset County Council is 32 Conservatives, 11 Liberal Democrats, two Greens and one Labour.

The Conservatives won three of the seven of the seats up for election in the Weymouth and Portland division.

New faces include Kevin Brookes who replaces Labour councillor Mark Tewkesbury and Anthony Ferrari who took the Lodmoor seat from the Liberal Democrat, David Mannings.

Tory Katherine Garcia was elected as the county councillor for Portland Tophill replacing Labour and Co-operative member Paul Kimber.

Jonathan Orrell was elected in Weymouth Town by 810 votes, doubling the number of Green county councillors.

Speaking at the count Cllr Orrell, who is also a GP, said: “I see it as an extension of my job. I try to keep people healthy, now as the next stage I will try to keep the wider area healthy with cleaner air and more alternative cycle routes.”

He said he will focus of regenerating Weymouth town centre which has been “neglected” in recent years.

Cllr Clare Sutton, who retained her seat in Rodwell with 1,474 votes, is the other Green councillor for Dorset County Council.

In Westham, Liberal Democrat David Harris also retained his seat with 1,155 of the votes, up from 150 in 2013.

Cllr Harris said he will now be appealing to the Electoral Commission to change the division name to Westham, Southill and north Radipole as that is a “more accurate” representation of his ward. 

The overall turnout for Weymouth and Portland division was 37.2 per cent with 18,458 votes cast.

In West Dorset, the Conservative Party won six seats and the Liberal Democrats won five seats.

This represents a gain of one seat by the Liberal Democrats in the area and a loss of one seat by the Conservative Party.

The shock result for West Dorset was the Liberal Democrat victory in Sherborne Town, where the Leader of the County Council, Robert Gould, of the Conservative Party, was defeated by the Liberal Democrat candidate, Jon Andrews.

With 1,493 votes to Mr Gould’s 1,471, Mr Andrews beat his Conservative rival by a mere 22 votes.

Liberal Democrats cheered and applauded when the result was read out, treating it as a major victory.

Mr Andrews said: “I was hoping I would run Robert Gould close. I am delighted I have won, but shocked in some ways.”

He added: “The people of Sherborne will know that I will be a voice for Sherborne.”

The Conservative Party retained the seats of Beaminster, Chickerell and Chesil Bank, Marshwood Vale, Sherborne Rural and Three Valleys in West Dorset, increasing their share of the vote in each area.

Rebecca Knox, who was re-elected as councillor for Beaminster with a 63% share of the vote, said: “I am absolutely thrilled. All my thanks goes to the people of the Beaminster division.”

She added: “I will work as hard as I can, dedicated to the community, as everyone would expect.”

Jean Dunseith, who won Chickerell and Chesil Bank for the Conservative Party, with a much increased vote share, said: “I am absolutely delighted with the support the Chickerell and Chesil Bank division has given me, and the work starts now.”

The Conservative Party also won one of the two seats in the Bridport division.

The Liberal Democrats managed to retain their two seats in Dorchester and their seats in Bridport and Linden Lea.

Voter turnout for the nine divisions in West Dorset often exceeded 40%, the highest being Sherborne Rural with a turnout of more than 47%.

Elsewhere in the county, the Conservatives won a further seven seats in North Dorset, with Liberal Democrat Derek Beer elected as the councillor for Shaftesbury.

Voters also took to polling stations in Weymouth and West Dorset yesterday for two by-elections.

The by-election in Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s Westham East ward was called following the resignation of Liberal Democrat Cllr Sally Maslin who won the seat from Labour’s Mike Byatt last May.

Cllr Byatt won back the seat but will this time be serving as a Conservative party member, having switched parties earlier this year.

He was not present at the count.

The Bridport Town Council South by-election in Bridport South was won by the Conservative candidate, Barbara Vousden, with 432 votes.

The by-election was put in motion after Frances McKenzie announced she was stepping down from the seat as she could no longer commit to evening meetings.

For full details of all Dorset County Council results, go to https://mapping.dorsetforyou.gov.uk/elections/2017/Summary and see Saturday's Echo for a full election round-up.