21 July 2023
The Green Party came in second place in a highly-contested Town Council by-election in Dorchester on 20th July 2023 with the Lib Dems winning the contest with 480 votes. Poppy Farmer received 240 votes (20%) ahead of the Independent candidate Emma Hill on181 votes, the Tory Peter Stein on 168 votes, and Labour's Barry Thompson on 142 votes.
Green candidate Poppy Farmer campaigned on the issues of access to affordable housing for local people and promised to speak up on this and other issues affecting young people. Poppy called for Dorset Council to build council housing on land it owns and for plans to build on water meadows in North Dorchester to be abandoned as this would not meet local need and would destroy a valueable natural habitat.
Poppy said "Congratulations to Kate Reid. I want to thank everyone who voted Green. Coming in second place from a standing start is a real achievement and bodes well for the Green Party."
The vacancy on the town council followed the resignation of Lib Dem councillor Tony Lyall over issues of migration and financial management. The winning candidate Kate Reid joins 17 other Liberal Democrat and 2 Independent councillors and will serve for just 10 months or so until May 2024 when the whole council be up for re-election.
Dorset Green Party RSS Feed