About a week ago Honorary Alderman Rev Brian Ellis asked pertinent questions of Cllr Spencer Flower, leader of the controlling Tory group on Dorset Council in the Letters page of the Dorset Echo.

Essentially, all the questions centred around the issue of internal democracy on the council and in particular how councillors had been chosen by Cllr Flower for the decision-making process.

Í have the utmost respect for the Rev Brian Ellis. He has always shown a firm grasp of democratic principles in local government.

Collaborative, cross party working in a council of 82 members, including 39 opposition councillors is perfectly possible and a path that our politics will probably increasingly take after this pandemic.

I would be delighted to hear that in the very near future every opposition group on Dorset Council has brought relevant questions to ask at Cabinet and Full Council meetings – why not?

So I ask Cllr Spencer Flower again to have the courtesy to answer the Rev Brian Ellis’s questions.

His answers will be of direct interest to every active democrat in Dorset.

Richard Denton-White

Mill Lane

Charminster