A plea for a rethink on new council boundaries for Weymouth, Portland and Chickerell has been rejected by the county council.

Weymouth councillor David Harris claims that the proposals being put out for consultation by the Boundary Commission was a nonsense.

He told the meeting in Dorchester that to have land near Upwey rail station included with Broadmayne made no more sense than parts of Westham being included with Chickerell.

He asked the council to send the recommendations for the borough back to the Commission for a re-think, but overwhelmingly lost the vote.

Cllr Harris said that the proposals made a mockery of the declared aims of the Commission of reflecting community interests and paid “no regard for the needs of local democracy.”

His idea did win support from opposition Weymouth councillors – but none from the majority Conservative group.

Green Party Cllr Clare Sutton said she objected to the large size of the wards and having, in some cases, two or three councillors: “It discriminates against independent councillors and small parties….it adds value to our democracy to have greater diversity,” she said.

Cllr Kate Wheller (Labour, Portland Harbour) also added her objection to the boundary proposals for the borough and Chickerell.

She said that parts of what she considered Wyke Regis had been placed in Chickerell, which in itself, was not part of Weymouth and Portland, but came under West Dorset District Council – while a small area of Wyke had been ‘lumped in’ with Portland.

“We are trying to strengthen communities but right here we seem to be trying to break them up,” she said.

Christchurch councillor David Jones said he had some sympathy with the views of south Dorset councillors – especially because of the size of the wards which the Boundary Commission were proposing.

He said reducing the number of councillors on the new authority to 82 would put too much pressure on councillors trying to represent thousands of residents.

“It will lead to more representative work being done by town and parish councillors because people won’t be able to get to see their unitary councillor” and he said that, in time, the workload would drive people who had jobs out of sitting on the council and put pressure for councillors to be paid, rather than just receiving expenses.

“I do hope the new council will support people but with fewer councillors it will be harder to do the job properly,” he said.

Dorchester Cllr Andy Canning said the proposals from the Boundary Commission should be supported, as they were.

“If members feel strongly they should express their individual views…it’s not up to the council to express a view at this stage.”

Cllr Andrew Parry said that where he was a councillor, east Dorset, two and three member wards worked well. He accused Cllr Harris, and others, of “emotional rhetoric bordering on scaremongering.”

“It is perfectly feasible for anyone to get elected…Weymouth is not a special case,” he said.

The Boundary Commission proposals, which are currently out for public consultation, re-draws many of the rural county’s ward boundaries to produce 30 single seat mainly rural wards; 14 double councillor wards and 8 three councillor wards.

A 28 to 7 vote supported the Boundary Commission proposals.