FORMER Dorset County Council leader Spencer Flower has an anxious wait for judgement in a landmark court case.

Flower appeared at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court today, accused of failure to comply with the Localism Act, in particular failing to declare pecuniary interest in Synergy Housing during a council meeting relating to the East Dorset Core Strategy document.

The Crown alleged that Flower, 72, of Aggis Farm, Verwood, should not have participated in the meeting – nor voted – as he was a non-executive director for Synergy Housing at the time.

The East Dorset District Council meeting, where councillors agreed to submit the core strategy document to the Secretary of State for approval, dates back to February 2013. The core strategy is essentially a blueprint for preferred future development in East Dorset until 2028.

Flower, who denies the charge, told the court he was “devastated” after learning of the decision to prosecute, which came more than two years after the meeting in question.

“I didn’t feel there was any reason for me to be charged with that offence,” he said, adding he’d always been “scrupulous” when it came to local authority code of practices.

A number of county officials - including Dorset County Council chief executive Debbie Ward – supplied character references on Flower’s behalf.

Simon Jones, prosecuting, said: “It was incumbent on the defendant to play no role in that meeting.

“Synergy had a great deal to gain. At the point of the meeting he could have withdrawn, indeed he should have withdrawn.”

Earlier the court heard Synergy Housing had been negotiating with developer Wyatt Homes over Wimborne’s Cuthbury Allotment site.

The prosecution alleged the core strategy document discussed at the February 2013 meeting, led to a change of status of land owned by Synergy, which in turn led to a benefit for the not-for-profit charitable housing association.

Developers want to build 192 dwellings at the site, of which 40-50 per cent will be affordable housing. A planning application should be lodged within two months.

However, asked in court whether he knew he should not have voted at the meeting and whether he knew of Synergy’s Wyatt Homes agreement, Flower responded “I did not” to both.

The charge is believed to be the first to be heard under the Localism Act, which came into force in July 2012, and carries a maximum £5,000 fine and disqualification from public office for up to five years.

District Judge Stephen Nicholls is due to record his verdict at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court on Monday, March 30.