A Dorchester town councillor has announced his intention to resign, claiming that the majority Liberal Democrat party on the authority has "lost the plot".

Dorchester East Ward councillor Tony Lyall may force a by-election with his resignation.

He said he walked away from the Liberal Democrats, after more than 20 years of membership, during at a local party meeting where refugees arriving in the UK was discussed.

Cllr Lyall said he took the view that, while early "boat people" were genuinely seeking escape from persecution in their home countries and were to be welcomed, in recent years the majority had been young men coming to the UK for economic reasons, transported by Albanian criminal gangs, and should be stopped.

"I was told that the view was not what the Liberal Democrats believed and if I didn't agree with it, I should leave the party – so I did," said Cllr Lyall.

He is also upset about what he claims is a "ludicrous" decision to spend £2.5million refurbishing the Municipal Buildings complex in Dorchester, work which is not yet completed, and then, effectively hand the building to Dorchester Arts to run, which Cllr Lyall said has barely been mentioned in public reports.

"We've now got to ask permission to use our own building, apart from the council chamber and one other room. It doesn't seem right," he said.

"I find this pretty poor. Many councillors said that it was Dorchester's 'village hall'. It has gotten so bad that when we have a meeting in the council chamber there's so much noise from the town hall functions that you can't hear a word."

Cllr Lyall claims that there is no mention of this in the annual report.

"This was done to save on the rates, this decision was made by the policy committee and was brought to council with the decision already made," he said.

Cllr Lyall said that part of the changes to the council-owned buildings have included constructing new offices to the rear of the Corn Exchange, which town council staff were set to occupy, moving out of the existing offices in North Square, which would then be sold.

"When they came to move in they discovered that there was only enough room for about half the staff, including Dorchester Arts, so the town council are still in North Square and the building won't be sold," he claimed.

"You would have thought that could have been worked out better."

The disgruntled, soon to be former councillor, decided to stay away from this week's mayor making ceremony, when Cllr Alistair Chisholm donned the red robes and chain for the first time.

He also decided not to attend the May town council meeting and the annual town meeting, held the following day.

"I have nothing against Alistair but I will be putting pen to paper in the coming days to resign. It's got to the stage where I have had enough," said Cllr Lyall.

Annual town meeting attracts two residents

Dorchester's annual town meeting continues to struggle to attract willing participants.

This year's, held on Tuesday evening, attracted two people, a press reporter and lasted less than ten minutes.

No motions or questions had been submitted to the event, which is designed for residents to raise any concerns and ask questions on local issues.

Town clerk Steve Newman told councillors that various ideas had been suggested to try and make the meeting, which the council legally has to hold, more attractive but it was constrained by having to be held in the evening and in May.

He said the council had recently held an informal 'town event' in the Corn Exchange with partner organisations, but this was not in the format which was acceptable under local government guidance to be classed as an annual town meeting.

The new mayor, Cllr Alistair Chisholm, has asked councillors and the town clerk to come up with ideas on how to make next year's event more popular.