DORSET Council may have to wait for weeks to see if a change of Government brings any benefits to the county.

Despite a previous Conservative majority on both Dorset Council and the former  Dorset County Council, and at Westminster, it brought no obvious financial advantages for residents.

The former council leader, Spencer Flower, had often expressed frustration that despite his lobbying, aided by former Conservative MPs, no change was made to the share of funding the county received from the Government – Dorset remaining near the bottom of the list, while at the same time having one of the most expensive council tax rates in the country.

Now controlled by the Liberal Democrats following the May 2 election, Dorset Council has two Labour councillors.

One of them, Portland Labour councillor, Paul Kimber, welcomed the election of Lloyd Hatton as Labour MP for South Dorset, who will become part of the majority Labour government.

Said Cllr Kimber: “The Labour Party promised change for our communities in South Dorset during the General Election.

"Whether you need a home, or are affected by the cost of living, from day one we must start to have a government that cares and understands the plight of ordinary people and bring hope to rebuild our South Dorset community family.”

Added Cllr Kate Wheller: "I am delighted by the result and as Leader of the Labour Group at both Dorset Council and Weymouth Town Council I am looking forward to working with a Labour Government and our new Labour MP Lloyd Hatton."

New MP for West Dorset, Lib Dem Edward Morello, said shortly after his election that people in the constituency had felt ignored by the last Government and one of his priorities as an MP would be to get a better deal for the area.

Said Weymouth Green councillor Clare Sutton, who holds a Cabinet position on Dorset Council and is also the Green Party leader on Dorset Council: "Fourteen years of Tory rule at Westminster have been disastrous for Weymouth and Portland, where we have some of the worst scores in the whole country for deprivation and social mobility. So I am pleased to see the back of Richard Drax and welcome the election of Labour’s Lloyd Hatton.

"I sincerely hope our new government will prioritise the needs of those who most need its help, and take urgent action on the climate crisis on an international, national and local level. In this election campaign that has been the elephant in the room.

"Children’s Services are in crisis in many parts of the country, though thankfully not in Dorset. The main parties largely neglected funding to local councils in their appeal for votes, but this is a massive issue.

"From a Green Party perspective, we are delighted to have achieved 4 MPs under the first-past-the-post system. In South Dorset, Catherine Bennett was an exceptional candidate and many people told me they wanted to vote for her but felt they had to prioritise ousting Richard Drax. The same thing happened in West and North Dorset, where Kelvin Clayton and Ken Huggins were also exceptional candidates. It’s our job, as Greens, to continue to press the issues which are fundamental to everyone’s future."

Independent group leader on Dorset Council, Les Fry (Dorchester), echoed views about the county not getting a fair deal under the Conservatives: "Under the previous national Conservative administration Dorset did not do particularly well, we were not seen as an area that required attention.

The county's allocation funding from Government for public services including Council, Police and Fire disadvantaged us in everything that we did and despite requests for fair funding nothing was ever achieved.

I look forward to seeing how our new MPs can highlight this unfairness and deliver better funding for West Dorset."