‘We’re an oasis of calm” says leader as council tax increases by just under five per cent

Dorset Council has agreed its budget for the 12 months from April with the council tax increasing by just under five per cent.

It means the average Band D property will be paying more than £166 a month or around £2,000 a year.

Conservative group leader Cllr Spencer Flower said the increase will maintain frontline services.

However, the authority will still need to look for more savings, despite the £96 million already saved by merging councils, including East Dorset, in 2019.

Opposition councillors criticised the rise, claiming many council tax-payers will struggle to meet their bills.

Most other Dorset Council fees and charges will also go up by five per cent from April.

Cllr Flower, pictured, described Dorset Council as “an oasis of calm” with a balanced budget while neighbouring authorities were struggling, some with deficits of more than £100 million.

Future ‘savings’ were the subject of much debate at the council budget meeting with opposition councillors claiming they, and everyone else, are being kept in the dark about how at least £8 million of savings in the coming financial year would be achieved.

Lib Dem leader Cllr Nick Ireland claimed the Conservative group were unwilling to elaborate because the truth was likely to be unpalatable at a time when the May elections are only weeks away.

Weymouth Green councillor Brian Heatley moved an amendment to account for the £8m in what he described as a more transparent way by showing it as coming from reserves  – but was defeated on a 2-1 vote.

There was criticism from Weymouth Radipole Independent councillor David Gray who said the administration and its leaders had not taking all its opportunities including asset sales which he described as “a complete mess” with very few disposals achieved in five years from a portfolio worth £500 million.

He also claimed that despite the administration claim it was not using reserves to support day to day spending it had done just that – utilising £21.6m over four years.

Cllr Gray also hit out at what he described as ‘silos’ within some council departments where it had proved difficult to achieve decisions, or make the changes needed for the future.

The council today employs 300 more people than when it was created in 2019.

Cllr Gray said that he would, by now, have expected some of the 4,800 posts to be slimmed down to create a smaller organisation – and warned that failure to make cuts could see the authority £50 million adrift within a few years.

His comments led the porfolio holder responsible for staffing, Jill Haynes, to say that the council would be seeking some changes to staff roles and its processes, ‘flexing’ some positions to meet new requirements, rather than making redundancies.

During the budget debate there was criticism, from all sides, about the way government financial support is allocated with Dorset getting just under £700,000 a year while Leicester gets £35.6 million.

Finance portfolio holder Cllr Gary Suttle said the government grant did not reflect the extra costs of being a rural county with a higher than average population of older people.