Dorset Council cabinet remains Tory (despite calls for other parties to be included)

All of the new council’s other committees are allocated on a percentage basis – according to the number of seats each party or group has – but the ruling Cabinet is made up entirely of Conservative councillors, nine men and one woman.

And that political make-up, according to council leader Spencer Flower, is the way it is going to stay.

Dorchester independent town councillor Alistair Chisholm reminded the new council leader at its first meeting on Thursday that in West Dorset enough votes were gathered in 2014 to challenge exactly the same system of council governance.

The result of the referendum was a 2-1 vote against the executive or cabinet system where all the seats go to the majority party. At Dorset Council, the Conservatives have a majority of four.

There was more than 25,000 votes for a more democratic system in West Dorset – 16,534 to 8,811, as a result of which some Tory seats had to be given up to other parties.

“The executive committee, or cabinet, will be the most important policy-making committee of this new council and should therefore reflect, as far as possible, the composition of the new council, and the great majority of the Dorset Council electorate will share this latter view,” said Mr Chisholm.

But despite his comments and plea for more seats to other groups and independent councillors the council leader Spencer Flower said it was quite clear from the outset when the new council was being planned that the “Leader and Executive governance model” was going to be used. He said it had been included in the Government Orders which created the new council, and he would continue to use it.

“It gives me as leader personal responsibility for deciding both the areas of responsibility to be filled on my cabinet and which councillors should be appointed to those areas.

“Conservative candidates were successful in being elected to the majority of seats on Dorset Council and I have drawn my Cabinet from the majority group. In making my decisions about areas of responsibility and who should fill them my guiding principles has been to identify not only the best person for the role but also a group of councillors who will be able to work together effectively as a team. As part of that I believe that particular strength of purpose comes from forming a Cabinet of like-minded councillors drawn from the same political group.”

But he added that he was committed to working with councillors from all groups – which he said was reflected in setting up a cross party executive advisory panel to advise the council on the implications of climate change in Dorset.