The 2019 Dorset Council election was held on Thursday 2 May 2019 to elect councillors to the new Dorset Council in England. It took place on the same day as other district council elections in the United Kingdom.[1]
These were the first elections to the new unitary council, which has come into effect on 1 April 2019. The new unitary authority was created to administer most of the area formerly administered by Dorset County Council, which was previously subdivided into the districts of Weymouth and Portland, West Dorset, North Dorset, Purbeck, and East Dorset. The previous elections in for Dorset County Council took place in 2017, and for the former district councils in 2015 and 2016. Future elections will take place in 2024 and 2029, and then every 4 years.[2]
The 2019 election saw the Conservatives take a majority of seats on the Council.
Council composition
Prior to the election the composition of the shadow authority was:
↓
120
31
11
8
2
Con
LD
Lab
I
G
After the election the composition of the council was:
Susan Cocking, Les Fry, Rob Hughes and John Worth, all elected as independents, subsequently sat as members of the Alliance for Local Living, which was in the process of being set up as a registered party when nominations for the 2019 election closed. It was deregistered as a political party in November 2023 but they continued to sit together as a group, before registering as a new political party called Independents for Dorset in February 2024.
Kate Wheller, elected for Labour, left the party in October 2019 to join the Alliance for Local Living. In May 2022 she left the ALL to sit as an independent.[3] She re-joined Labour in January 2024.[4]
Mike Barron, elected as a Liberal Democrat, joined the Conservatives in December 2021.[5]
David Gray, elected as a Liberal Democrat, left the party in October 2022 to sit as an independent.[6]
