THE Deputy Leader of Weymouth Town Council has announced he will not run for re-election, saying he has found being a councillor "enormously frustrating".

Cllr Luke Wakeling was first elected in 2019 and stood as an independent in Weymouth Town Council.

Representing Weymouth East, Cllr Wakeling currently sits on the planning and licensing committee and finance and governance committee and also served as deputy leader.

Cllr Wakeling announced he would not run for re-election and explained how issues of online abuse, misinformation and "spinning the plates" of day to day council work left him "frustrated" with serving as a councillor.

Cllr Wakeling said in a statement: "It’s been an honour to be one of the councillors for Weymouth East for the last five years.

"I’m really appreciative to all the people who voted for me in 2019, and to the (99 per cent pleasant) people I’ve met and engaged with during my tenure.

"However, I have made a personal decision not to stand for re-election.

"The truth is I’ve found being a councillor, enormously frustrating. There’s far more to being a councillor than attending a couple of meetings a month.

"I guess somebody else could be elected, and do the absolute bare minimum, but I’ve never been that type of person.

"I will always give it my best shot, and it takes significant time to prepare, research, attend the briefings, read and respond to emails."

Cllr Wakeling warned that misinformation and online bullying are two of the biggest problems for councillors - and said that misinformation surrounding the Bibby Stockholm barge and the neighbourhood plan were particularly prominent.

He added: "I no longer think that being elected as a councillor is a good use of my time, neither in community benefit, nor personally.

"Firstly, misinformation, and cyber-bullying are a real problem.

"It’s been getting worse, and I fear with generative AI, you won’t be able to believe what you see and hear.

"I was a publican for 16 years, and I’ve been called pretty much every name before, but you shouldn’t have to be so thick-skinned to represent your community.

"In this respect, society needs to grow up, and online bullies should not be able to hide behind anonymous screen names."

He added: "Sadly, the facts and the truth are normally quite boring, but that’s no excuse to tell half the story, exaggerate or distort the truth, or just downright lie.

"You can’t have a healthy democracy, in this “post-truth” environment.

"Covid didn’t help, people being trapped at home for all those months led to a surge in keyboard-warriors, poorly moderated Facebook groups, conspiracy-theories... Some political actors are fuelling this fire too.

"We’ve seen in the last few months, misinformation about asylum seekers, the barge, and the neighbourhood plan.

"No local council or councillors made the decision to house asylum seekers in this way or to bring the barge here. This is a Conservative policy from the Government in Westminster."

The Weymouth East councillor also expressed his frustration about getting results for the residents he represents and said that the structure of councils makes it difficult to innovate or improve efficiency.

He continued: "Ninety per cent of the council’s resources are concerned with keeping plates spinning – the things that a council must do; providing allotments, cutting the grass, emptying bins, keeping the beach nice, cleaning toilets, etc.

"It is irrelevant who is elected, these things must happen anyway, and they are all done in very old-fashioned ways, like a cart with its wheels stuck in ruts.

"I’ve tried to strive to improve efficiency and output, but it’s been a pretty fruitless quest. From my dealings with the unitary (Dorset Council), I believe things are even worse over the hill.

"Of the remaining decisions that your councillors do get input on, it’s a very long process to get a decision to committee.

"Quite often the clock runs down, until options are constrained by the time available, which destroys any hope of anything innovative, or that challenges the established ways.

"After the run-around, you wonder why you even bothered trying.

"I’m not going to disappear, I’ve got a couple of personal projects I’ll be getting on with, and I will still campaign locally on causes that are important to me."