DORSET County Council has come under fire for spending £45,000 of taxpayers’ money on refurbishing an old school site – months before deciding to sell it.

But the county council has defended the move, saying the sale of the Bovington Park and Business Centre will result in ‘significant savings’.

And the authority also said the centre has earned more than £60,000 since the refurbishment.

A source close to the site, who did not want to be named, said it was ‘another blatant act of incompetence, passing of the buck and wasting of funds by our local authority’.

He added: “It comes after years of neglect as a school, when the school staff and parents were crying out for improvements but were told there was no money. They have now spent upwards of £40,000 on decorating alone.

“The council has now decided to cut its losses, close and sell this site, having spent a vast amount of taxpayers’ money on improving and redeveloping the aging building to provide low cost conference facilities for internal corporate use.”

Cllr Robert Gould, cabinet member for corporate resources at Dorset County Council, said the conference centre was also available for private hire and the refurbishment was done only on parts of the building which were occupied by services, as well as the training and conference areas, which was expanded after Bovington Middle School closed in August 2013.

The facility generated an income of £38,000 in the financial year 2013/14 and has earned a further £26,100 since April this year.

Cllr Gould said: “We have been reviewing all our property assets as part of our Forward Together transformation programme. To help reach our savings target of £47m by 2017, we must reduce the number of buildings we own or rent.

“Rationalising the number of buildings we own or lease will not only generate income, but also save on rents and annual maintenance costs.

“To help us make a decision about the long-term future of the site and buildings, the council decided to assess the costs of running a range of additional services from Bovington Park, against the known maintenance costs of the whole site of £2.7m. While this assessment was carried out, the council agreed to keep the buildings operating for 12 months.

“In February 2014, the assessment report was considered by the council’s Asset Management Group and a recommendation was made to the Cabinet that the property should be disposed of. We are now making arrangements for its sale and are relocating the remaining services.

“The current running costs at Bovington Park are £137,800 and these changes will result in significant savings.”