DODGY internet connections are interfering with democracy in Dorset.

On Thursday two councillors were barred from casting their votes and a committee chairman only sat for part of the meeting because of a wonky connection.

Opposition leader Cllr Nick Ireland (Lib Dem), who was one of those councillors affected, says this is not the first time; the full September council meeting had several councillors who were unable to play a full part in the meeting because of technical problems. Yesterday’s area planning committee saw Chickerell councillor Jean Dunseith twice barred from voting because her internet had dropped out and she had been unable to hear briefings from planning officers. Cllr Ireland suffered the same problem for one of the items.

For one of the decisions Cllr Dunseith’s vote might have been crucial. It resulted in deadlocked vote with committee chair David Shortell having to use his casting vote, effectively voting twice.

The substantive motion then went the same way, with the chairman’s casting vote being used in favour of the officer recommendation. The effect will be to allow a developer not to have to comply with an agreement which should have seen 17 affordable homes built on a Portland site. Those properties, off Bumpers Lane, will now be at market value because of the vote. On the same day, at the same time, Dorchester councillor Andy Canning, who chairs the Dorset Pension committee, was unable to get online and ended up having to use a mobile phone in conjunction with his laptop to take part in the meeting, which was delayed by around ten minutes. Pensions campaigner Caz Dennett, who had taken time off work to listen in to that meeting, said she thought it wrong that both committees were held at the same time – denying the public the right to listen to both debates. She has now written to the council’s chief executive Matt Prosser to complain about the way two questions from her were dealt with by the pensioner committee. Rather than give a reply at the meeting it was decided the responses would only be included in the minutes at a later, unspecified, date.

“I took time out of my working day to attend the pension committee meeting so I could hear the questions being answered. It is disrespectful to the public who attempt to take part that their efforts are then so casually dismissed.

“I am concerned that the levels of democracy at Dorset Council are shrinking under the guise of “unusual circumstances” due to Covid-19. The systems for public participation Dorset Council utilise should mean the public participation can continue as expected. Microsoft Teams is a perfectly adequate platform for this.“There is zero facilitation for the public to interact and be able to read their own questions out, as they would if physically present, even though technically this is easy. The inability to interact means the chair or vice chair of any meeting can choose to ignore the public at their whim.Dorset Council are effectively silencing the public. This is not in the spirit of public participation and democratic services.”