The Mayor of Dorchester, Cllr Alistair Chisholm, has defended holding a by-election to fill a vacant seat on the town council.

He said that criticism of the cost of the election by some, un-named, councillors was entirely wrong and unjustified.

Cllr Chisholm said that although the Dorchester East seat winner, Kate Reid, would hold the seat for less than a year before full council elections in May 2024, it was right to stay true to democracy and ask the public to make their choice about who should represent them.

"It is a healthy state for democracy with an above 30 per cent turn out and not one of the four candidates getting less than a hundred votes," said Cllr Chisholm, one of the three Dorchester independent councillors on the authority.

Councils do have the power, in some circumstances, to co-opt a member without an election when a vacancy arises. A small number of Dorset parish councils have several councillors who have not stood for election.

The Dorchester East by-election was caused by the resignation of Tony Lyall, after he fell out with the Liberal Democrats on local and national policy issues, resigning from his ward seat and the party.

Cllr Reid took her seat for the first time at last week's town council meeting with an increased majority for the Liberal Democrat party, polling more than double the votes of the Green Party candidate who came second.

The seat was also contested by Labour, the Conservatives and an Independent candidate.

Ms Reid's victory means the Lib Dems maintain their 17 seats on the council with the other three places being held by independent councillors.

The meeting appointed her to two committees – management and the joint markets committee.

Dorchester-born, she served in the Army for 21 years and has lived in Fordington for the past six years with husband, Andy, and two teenage daughters.

She is a long-term supporter of the Dorset Wildlife Trust and STAND, the group which opposes up to 4,000 homes on land to the north of the county town.