Councillor Spencer Flower has been declared as the new leader of the Conservative group on Dorset Council.
At their first meeting following the local elections on 2 May, Conservative group members voted in Cllr Flower as their leader.
The leader of Dorset Council will be elected at the annual council meeting on 16 May.
Cllr Flower said: “I am delighted to have been given the support of colleagues in what will be a very demanding role.”
He has appointed Councillor Peter Wharf as deputy group leader.
The Verwood councillor is a former leader of Dorset County Council and East Dorset District Council.
Back in 2015, Cllr Flower became the first person to be prosecuted under a new law aimed at giving communities more power.
A district judge at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court ruled he had broken laws under the Localism Act 2011.
Flower, of Verwood, Dorset, was given a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £930 costs.
For more information, see this report on the BBC website – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-32113100
