A TOWN councillor has resigned, possibly forcing a by-election.

Dorchester East Ward councillor Tony Lyall claims the majority Liberal Democrat party on Town Council have “lost the plot” in recent years.

He says he walked away from the party, after more than 20 years, during  a local party meeting which was discussing refugees arriving in the UK.

Mr Lyall says he took the view that while early ‘boat people’ were genuinely seeking escape from persecution in their home countries and were to be welcomed –  in recent years the majority have been young men coming to the UK for economic reasons, transported by Albanian criminal gangs, and should be stopped.

“I was told that the view was not what the Liberal Democrats believed and if I didn’t agree with it, should leave the party – so I did,” said Mr Lyall.

He is also upset about what he claims is a “ludicrous” decision to spent what he believes   to be £2.5million refurbishing the Municipal Buildings complex, work which is not yet completed, and then, effectively  handing the building to Dorchester Arts to run, which he says has barely been mentioned in public reports.

“We’ve now got to ask permission to use our own building, apart from the council chamber and one other room. It doesn’t seem right,” said Mr Lyall.

“I find this pretty poor. Many councillors said that it was Dorchester’s ‘village hall’. It has gotten so bad that when we have a meeting in the Council Chamber there’s so much noise from the Town Hall functions that you can’t hear a word.”

He claims that there is no mention of this in the annual report: “This was done to save on the rates, this decision was made by Policy committee and was brought to council with the decision already made,” claims Mr Lyall, who says he questioned the consequences of the decision at the time.

Mr Lyall says that part of the changes to the council-owned buildings have included constructing new offices to the rear of the Corn Exchange which town council staff were to occupy, moving out of the existing offices in North Square, which would then be sold.

“When they came to move in they discovered there was only enough room for about half the staff, including Dorchester Arts, so the Town Council are still in North Square and the building won’t be sold. You would have thought that could have been worked out better,” said Mr Lyall.

The disgruntled former councillor decided to stay away from mayor making, when Cllr Alistair Chisholm donned the red robes and chain for the first time. He also decided not to attend the May town council meeting and the annual town meeting, held the following day.

“It’s got to the stage where I have had enough,” said Mr Lyall.