DORSET County Council is proposing to increase the number of its councillors.

A cross-party panel has been set up to review the council size and ward boundaries in light of a review by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.

At a meeting of the council’s cabinet, leader Spencer Flower told members that the panel was recommending increasing the number of councillors from 45 to 46.

He said this was done to reflect the fact that in Christchurch there were a significantly higher numbers of electors per councillor compared to elsewhere in the county.

Cllr Flower said that the other option would have been to reduce the number of councillors to 41, but this was not deemed appropriate by the panel.

He said: “We have had a series of cross party meetings and at the last meeting we agreed that we go up by one.”

The proposal was backed by the cabinet and will now go before full council on July 24.