Poole Borough Council

42 councillors were elected across 16 wards and there were elections every four years. The last election, in May 2015, resulted in a Conservative majority. The Mayor was Sean Gabriel, a Conservative councillor for the Canford Heath West ward since May 2015. The council was made up of 32 Conservative, 6 Liberal Democrat 3 Poole People and 1 UKIP councillors. After the election, a Conservative administration was formed with a cabinet of seven councillors who were responsible for deciding how the council's strategies and policies were implemented and how the budget was spent. The Council Leader was Janet Walton (Conservative). Wards ==Unlawful use of surveillance==

For three weeks in 2008 the Council carried out unlawful surveillance on a family following an allegation that they were living outside a particular school catchment area. The surveillance was carried out by one of Poole Borough Council's education officers, who followed the family's movements for 24 consecutive days between 10 February and 4 March 2008. Tim Martin, the council's head of legal services, authorised the surveillance and initially argued that it was justified under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, set up to counter serious crime, including terrorism. However, at a subsequent tribunal, the council's actions were ruled unlawful on multiple grounds: there was nothing, for instance, to suggest that the family's three young children had committed any criminal act, yet they were still made targets of the surveillance. The tribunal also ruled that the surveillance "was not proportionate and could not reasonably have been believed to be proportionate". The Council said that it accepted the judgment "fully". ==References==