THE leader of Dorset County Council Spencer Flower, who has been charged with failing to properly declare an interest in a property company, may now be removed by his fellow councillors.

Mr Flower, 72, has described the allegations as “massively insulting”.

He remains formally the authority’s leader and his deputy Robert Gould has stepped up for six weeks.

However because Mr Flower’s case may drag on for more than six weeks a special meeting has been called to decide the on-going leadership of the authority.

The meeting on Wednesday will be asked to decide whether to remove him from office and appoint a new leader, or to appoint a county councillor to act as leader on a temporary basis until the annual meeting of the county council on April 23 – or until he can resume office.

Mr Flower is due to appear at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court on December 2 after being charged under the Localism Act 2011.

The allegations relate to his involvement with both East Dorset District Council and the county council.

Mr Flower said in a statement: “I am naturally very disappointed that after an eight-month investigation the police and the Crown Prosecution Service were unable to make the appropriate decision and clear me from any wrongdoing.

“During a very long interview with the police back in August, I was offered no material evidence of any wrongdoing on my part.

“I have always been scrupulous in my compliance with the various versions of the adopted members’ code of conduct since I became a councillor in May 1999.

“However, I and many others believe that this is a personal attack on my honesty and integrity by a number of UKIP activists and others who think it appropriate to play politics with a high profile public figure.”

He added: “In my experience British politics at local level is very clean, regardless of which political party people belong to, and the very idea that I could be guilty of any wrongdoing is massively insulting and could not be further from the truth.”

Mr Flower remains a councillor, representing Verwood and Three Legged Cross.