CRITICISM of Government funding for Dorset Council has come from the authority’s finance spokesman.

Purbeck councillor Gary Suttle says that Conservative-controlled authority has been short-changed by the Government over many years.

The authority is currently working on a projected £8million overspend, based on figures for the first three months of the financial year, with a warning that although the administration hopes to contain that deficit, it could get worse.

Cllr Suttle told this week’s Cabinet meeting that in order to maintain services to residents the authority may end up needing to find an extra £36m this year to plug the budget gap.

“The truth of the matter remains that this council is under-funded by Government when compared to councils of similar size.

“In the budget process, over the months ahead, we will need to consider how we can change that situation. Savings can be made and everyone is working to control budgets but that is not enough – can we think differently, can we consider whole new ways to operate? and importantly to raise income, not just from existing sources, but from new and innovative methods over the coming months. We have some very interesting challenges ahead,” he said.

Cllr Suttle said that new ways of working would have to be looked at together with “spend to save” projects which might produce medium to long term savings.

He urged fellow portfolio holders to be acutely aware of the potential problems when preparing their plans for the year ahead.

Wimborne councillor and chair of one of the authority’s overview and scrutiny committee Cllr Shane Bartlett said the figures were “really disappointing but not unexpected” given the pandemic. He called for continual monitoring of the budget projections as they evolved.

Dorset Council’s budget process for next year has already started with councillors expected to make a decision about the level of next year’s Council tax at its February 2022 meeting.

Last year the council imposed the maximum level of increase it could, making the authority one of the most costly in the country with annual payments for ‘average’ band D households in some areas rising  above £2,000 a year for the first time, a figure which also includes payments to the police, fire and rescue service and town or parish councils.

In Weymouth the total figure for a Band D property is now £2,120.89; in Dorchester £2,127.96; Bridport £2,157.74 and Portland £2,034.49; in the Cerne Valley £1,966.79. For those areas which do not have a parish precept the annual council tax bill is currently £1,935.20 for a band D property.

By comparison in many London boroughs, council tax bills remain under £1,000 a year with Westminster, where average homes cost more than £1m, paying £828 a year, the lowest rate in the country.