THE role and importance of town councils have been completely overlooked in proposals for a shake-up of the council system in Dorset according to Bridport town councillors.

They were discussing their response to the consultation to form unitary authorities in the county to replace the nine existing councils.

Councillors felt urgent protests should be made to make it clear that town councils were going to be increasingly important for delivering local services.

They were also worried about how new councils would be accountable with fewer councillors Cllr Ros Kayes said when the proposed changes were being discussed by the council it was unanimously agreed that towns and parishes needed to have their powers enhanced for it to work properly and for clarity on which powers would be coming to town councils and which monies would follow those services.

Cllr Dave Rickard said he was both concerned and offended by the proposals.

He said: “I think it is disingenuous the language used in the consultation - it says if councils do nothing - councils have been doing an awful lot for a long time.

“The only reason they are not doing things now is because the government has slashed the funding to destroy local government and I think that is disgraceful.

“We should make a very big protest about that because we are being forced down roads nobody wants to go. Nobody wants to cut eduction, nobody wants to cut health care, nobody wants to cut waste provision, libraries. Everybody wants those services - the only people causing this problem is the government.”

Cllr Keith Day said his biggest worry would be underrepresentation.

He said: “If we do have a larger council we will be underrepresented. There will be fewer and fewer councillors. They says they want more working people as councillors. The whole idea would be completely lost - we would have to have professional councillors.”

Councillors also said there was too short a timescale for the consultation, Bridport Town Council clerk Bob Gillis told councillors the proposals being consulted on were because the current nine councils would need to find so many savings services would be cut.

He said currently the nine councils spend £920 million a year delivering services but the government only allotted Dorset £51.9million - £142 million less than in 2010/11.

The current forecast is that, from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2025, Dorset’s councils overall need to save an additional £82.3 million.

Of this amount, £51.9 million will need to be found before any new councils are formed in 2019/2020, leaving £30.4 million to be found between 2019 and 2025 if proposals are approved.

He added that by 2019/20, Dorset’s councils will have made savings over 10 years of almost £200 million.