LIZ JACKSON

COUNCIL leaders have been warned they ‘shouldn’t be miserable’ about the ‘tough choices’ they will need to make as budgets get tighter.

Dorset residents will experience a ‘moderate increase’ in the amount of council tax they pay after councillors voted for a precept increase of almost two per cent.

Presenting the budget, Dorset County Council leader Robert Gould said changes could be seen as opportunities for ‘ambitious and optimistic’ change rather than a reason to be miserable.

Cllr Gould said the precept increase was the result of a reduction of grants to the local authority; a large proportion of which was due to state-run schools converting to academies.

Members were told that unless they increased the precept the council would need to find further savings on top of the £15m already needed for 2015-16.

Cllr Gould explained that it was no longer prudent to accept the council tax freeze grant, saying that it was made available ‘at the whim of government’.

He said the £23 extra the average resident would have to pay each year in council tax was a ‘moderate increase’.

He said: “I think it’s an acceptable way forward to avoid making a further £1.8 million reduction in the base budget.”

Cllr Gould outlined the county council’s priority spending areas for the coming year, which include £2m investment for the county’s roads; continuing the roll-out of ‘super fast broadband’; and £5,000 for each councillor to put towards local community schemes.

Other aspects of the budget were also discussed in the council chamber, and there was heated discussion about priorities across the county – specifically cuts to services.

The local authority trading company, delivering adult and community services across Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole councils, was one controversial money-saving measure discussed.

Speaking for the Liberal Democrats, Cllr Dover disagreed with the scheme and renamed the LATC as ‘Losing Accountability, Trust and Compassion’.

She said: “That’s the reality of what it will be for service users and staff […] people do not stop being vulnerable just because it is a recession.”

Three votes were taken on the budget, and although councillors unanimously voted to increase the precept and unanimously approved the council’s position on general balances and reserves, nine councillors voted against DCC’s revenue budget strategy.