Now that the dust has settled after the local elections it might be useful to look more closely at the results.

Whilst the Conservative won 7 seats with 37.6% (6247 votes) of the total, the Liberal Democrats with 27.7% (4590 votes) gained 3 seats, Labour with 24.5% (4070 votes) only 1 seat, and Independents & Others with 10.2% (1689) votes also gained 1 seat.

This means that electing a Conservative councillor only took an average of just over 890 votes whilst the Liberal Democrats needed 1530 votes for each of theirs, and Labour and Independents & Others each needed 4070 and 1689 votes respectively for their solitary seat.

One should ask "Why the discrepancy?" and the answer is of course as usual the lottery of the first-past-the-post voting system which very rarely, if ever, gives a result that properly represents the votes cast.

The discrepancy is even more evident if one looks at the 8 wards where all three main parties were in direct competition. The Conservatives with 34.9% (4094 votes) gained 5 seats only needing just under 819 votes per seat, whilst the Liberal Democrats with 39.2% (4590 votes) still needed 1530 votes for each of their 3 seats and Labour's 21.4% ( 2511 votes) didn't even win a seat!

Overall only 7923 votes (47.8%) actually elected a candidate, so more than half the voters are in fact unrepresented.- their votes have been 'wasted'.

It's time we in England got round to a more proportional representation system, as they have done in Ireland and Scotland, and Wales is very likely follow suit next time!

Ken Milward, Spa Avenue, Weymouth.