Dorset - Politics

Politics

Local government in Dorset consists of a county council (Dorset County Council) and two unitary authorities (Bournemouth Borough Council and the Borough of Poole). Dorset County Council was created by the Local Government Act 1888 to govern the newly created administrative county of Dorset which was based largely on the historic county borders. Dorset became a two-tier non-metropolitan county after a reorganisation of local government in 1974 and its border was extended eastwards to incorporate the former Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch. Following a review by the Local Government Commission for England, Bournemouth and Poole each became administratively independent single-tier unitary authorities in 1997, although they remain part of the county geographically and for ceremonial purposes. The county council is based in Dorchester and comprises six second-tier districts: West Dorset, East Dorset, North Dorset, Purbeck, Christchurch, and Weymouth and Portland. The council is controlled by the Conservative Party: at the 2009 local elections 28 Conservative, 16 Liberal Democrat and one independent county councillors were elected. Bournemouth is also Conservative-controlled: the council comprises 46 Conservative, three Liberal Democrat, three Labour and two independent councillors. The Conservatives lost overall control of Poole at local elections in 2011 but subsequently formed a minority administration—the council comprises 21 Conservative councillors, 18 Liberal Democrat and three Poole People (a political party of Poole residents).

For representation in Parliament Dorset is divided into eight Parliamentary constituencies—five county constituencies and three borough constituencies. At the 2010 general election, the Conservative Party was dominant, strengthening their lead in six seats, and regaining one other from Labour. The borough constituencies of Bournemouth East, Bournemouth West and Poole are traditionally Conservative safe seats and are all represented by Conservative Members of Parliament. The county constituencies of North Dorset and Christchurch are also represented by Conservative MPs. West Dorset is represented by Conservative MP Oliver Letwin who is the Minister of State at the Cabinet Office. The marginal seat of South Dorset is represented by Richard Drax, who gained the seat from Dorset's only Labour representative, Jim Knight, in 2010. Mid Dorset and North Poole is held by Liberal Democrat MP Annette Brooke who retained her seat in 2010 with a slim majority of 269 (0.6% of the vote) over the Conservative candidate. For the European Parliament the county lies within the South West England constituency which elected three Conservative, two UK Independence Party and one Liberal Democrat Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) at the 2009 European Parliament election.