Number of councillors on Dorset Council likely to stay at 82
A review is looking at options including reducing the number of councillors
Dorset councillors have backed a review of the council’s size – plumping for the existing 82 councillors.
The Conservative opposition group were also in favour – although its leader Cllr Andrew Parry (West Parley) claimed the council could save around £1million in councillor expenses and allowances over the course of a council term, if it reduced its numbers to 70 councillors.
“But we are an expanding authority with tens of thousands of homes to be built here,” he said, explaining why he was supporting keeping the number of councillors at 82.
He said he hoped a boundary review would look at Weymouth area ward boundaries which he described as “a nagging grumble since 2019,” although, he said on balance, other areas seem to work well.
Former council leader Cllr Spencer Flower (Verwood) said the last review had been undertaken in 2018 and came into force for the 2019 elections.
“We did say that we thought about another review in 2027, so I’m not sure what the rush is now,” he said.
He said that there might be some merit in delaying for at least a year because a number of larger housing developments would then be known about and the Local Plan might be settled.
“I support the principle of a ward boundary review, but you are probably a year earlier than you need to be,” he said.
Figures from the Boundary Commission show Dorset as a predominantly rural unitary authority with 47% of the population living in rural areas: small towns, villages, and hamlets and 53% living in urban areas, the most significant of these being the built-up area of Weymouth, Portland, and Chickerell with a combined population of approximately 74,400.
It estimates the Dorset Council area population at 389,9501 which is approximately 20,000 (6%) higher than ten years ago, but notes : “This growth is below the national average rate of 8% over the last decade and has been influenced by a drop in net migration into the area due to slowing housing growth. Nonetheless in-migration has continued to be the driver of population growth (just at a slower rate) with the greatest gains among the pre-retirement and retirement age groups of 60-64 years and the greatest losses in those 15-29. The total 18+ population for 2024 was approximately 327,200 with a total electorate of 300,047.”
The Commission also says that Dorset has the highest proportion of residents aged 65 and over (31%) of any unitary authority in England, which compares to 19% for England and Wales. This trend is expected to continue to grow with the proportion of 65 and over projected to increase by 23% in the next decade and by 2035 the proportion of those aged 65 and over is expected to be 36%.
At the same time the number of children is projected to fall in the next ten years. Residents aged between 0 to 15 are expected to fall by approximately 6,600 (12%) by 2034. 14% of Dorset’s population are school age 5 to 18 compared to 16% for the South West and 17% for England and Wales.
The Commission says that Dorset had a housing stock of 188,556 in 2024 with new housing completions at around 1,600 a year in recent years, but revised national planning policy has set a target of 3,246 each year for the county.