CALLS are being made for senior management figures to step down over the Dorset Waste Partnership ‘fiasco’.

The Labour group on Weymouth and Portland Borough Council has put in a motion to be discussed at the next full council meeting asking senior management to take ‘public responsibility and accountability for the fiasco that has been the new service and subsequent budgetary problems’.

It comes after councillors accepted the DWP’s revised budget at a management committee meeting.

Finance and assets spokesman Cllr Colin Huckle, told the committee that the borough council’s share of the increased budget for the 2015/16 financial year is £200,000. Cllr Penny McCartney, who proposed the motion, said: “Personally I would like someone to resign, as if this was a private company wasting public money they would be sacked or resign. The sheer volume of complaints is an embarrassment.

“You expect some teething problems with a new system but I could not believe the extent of it. And it’s the Dorset residents who are picking up the bill.”

As of January 1 2014, the four most senior employees of the Dorset Waste Partnership had a collective salary of around £260,000. This included a salary of £74,905 for director of the partnership Steve Burdis.

Chairman of the management committee and leader of the Labour group Cllr Mike Byatt said DWP has questions to answer over the roll-out of the new recycling service and their financial management.

He added: “What we are trying to establish is, in management terms, what went wrong and who was responsible.

“We need to be given assurance that things are being put right to give us confidence moving forward.”

He also said it would be beneficial to debate the issues in a public arena at a full council meeting.

But he stopped short of calling for senior management figures to resign.

“I would not want to pre-judge but we anticipate and expect questions to be asked about why it was so badly managed.”

Cllr Mike Goodman, who also sits on the management committee and is the Conservative group leader, declined to comment other than to say the party has no influence over the DWP joint committee as the Weymouth and Portland representatives are Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors.

  • CHAIRMAN of the DWP joint committee, Anthony Alford, faced tough questions over why the budget has increased at a West Dorset District full council meeting.

In response to a question from Cllr Roz Kayes he revealed the district council’s share of the increase is £170,000. The matter will go before the next meeting of the executive committee.

Backlog of issues resolved

A DORSET Waste Partnership spokesman said issues in Weymouth town centre with rubbish uncollected because it was in the wrong bags were resolved before Christmas.

The partnership is now receiving a ‘normal’ level of calls and no longer has a backlog of issues to deal with in the borough.

“In areas where the system is established, recycling rates have doubled and landfill waste reduced dramatically,” the spokesman said.

“Two external reviews of the DWP are planned for the coming weeks.

“The DWP Joint Committee and management team welcome them and will carefully consider any results as we seek to improve services for residents and drive down costs.”