Following recent council elections it was interesting to see clear trends emerging, showing that seven out of the eight elected district councillors representing Dorchester are opposed to new Council Offices.

Only Cllr Barrett (Ind. West Dorset Group), the title a contradiction in terms in itself, is in favour of the proposed new offices.

Considering the Lib-Dem vote nationally went down spectacularly, in West Dorset (and Dorchester in particular) it held up well because of the opposition to the new offices.

In Charminster and the Cerne Valley, the chairman of the development control committee was unseated by an outside Independent who came from nowhere and polled over 900 votes.

That was more votes than either of the two sitting conservative councillors, showing clearly again the strength of feeling amongst local people against the development of new council offices at the behest of the Charles Street developer.

In Dorchester, town councillors opposed to the new office development rose from 17 to 18, leaving only two, again Coun Barrett and Coun Vivienne Allen (Conservative) in favour.

These results show Dorchester to be even more solidly opposed to the development of new council offices on Charles Street than ever.

However the Leader of WDDC tries to present the results of the local election as giving him a mandate from the electorate to proceed with the new council office on Charles Street.

The fact remains that the only seats gained in West Dorset for the Conservatives were because of the split vote between the Lib-Dems and Labour .

Isn’t it time to look again at these underlying trends and respect the wishes of the electorate and residents of Dorchester and demonstrate localism in the county town?

Sarah Wilkinson, Grey School Passage, Dorchester