“Councillor Spencer Flower is once again the leader of East Dorset District Council.Charged with failing to comply with the Localism Act 2011, Cllr Flower stood down as leader of Dorset County Council in December 2014.
Convicted of the charge at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court in March last year, he was given a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £930 costs. The councillor claimed his involvement with a social housing company was not relevant to a debate in 2013 over the future of housing in East Dorset. He was allowed to remain in public office.
At a special meeting on Thursday night, Cllr Flower was elected leader of the East Dorset Conservative group and has automatically been named council leader as a result. His appointment to leader will be noted, but not voted on, at the next meeting of the full council.
David McIntosh, chief executive of Christchurch and East Dorset Councils, said: “At a meeting of East Dorset Conservatives last night Cllr Spencer Flower was elected leader of the Conservative group. He now becomes the leader of East Dorset District Council with immediate effect.”
Councillor Flower replaces Ian Monks, who resigned the post following an email row with Christchurch MP Chris Chope in December. Mr Monks resigned hours before plans for a ‘super-council’ covering south east Dorset were shot down by East Dorset councillors, who voted overwhelmingly against discussing any options on the table involving the uniting of Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and their own council – at least for now.”
Note: This article was created as an exercise in linguistics. The text is not mine (except the title) and the original can be found in the Salisbury Journal. I am studying how our local newspapers present political news and whether simply changing the order of the text can significantly change the bias and focus.
Rachel Williams
https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/14247222.Former_leader_back_at_the_helm/
Ex-Dorset County Council leader Spencer Flower guilty of conflict of interest