The following elections are taking place on Thursday 2nd May 2024:

• Dorset Council elections for 82 member seats
• Elections for all 150+ parish and town councils across the Dorset Council area.

Please note that this will be for a five-year term of office and that there are changes to some town/parish wards, which apply to Shaftesbury.

What’s Changing?

Shaftesbury Town Council currently have 12 councillors serving its residents, but this number will rise to 15 next year due to an increase in the town’s population. 

Based on the evidence currently available, Dorset Council considers that a community governance change would:

• help to better reflect the local identities and interests of the Shaftesbury community
• help to secure a more effective and convenient governance of the area.

Furthermore, the current governance arrangements for the Grouped Parish Council do not achieve electoral equality, and it is the Government’s Guidance that “it is not in the interests of effective and convenient local government either for voters or councillors, to have significant difference in levels of representation between different parish wards”. Dorset Council therefore recommends a change to councillor numbers.

For more information about the Elections, please visit Dorset Council’s website

Please read the Notice of Poll Situation and Polling Station for Shaftesbury.