BREXIT planning has come to a halt at Dorset Council – at least until the general election is over.

Since August the authority has been working on and testing contingency plans should the country crash out of Europe.

The planning has included worse-case scenarios, including an chaotic exit coupled with another catastrophe such as pandemic flu, or fuel, food, and medicine shortages.

The weekly meeting of officers which were being held have now stopped and will not resume until January, should they be needed.

Dorset councillors are being told that the Government’s Operation Yellowhammer, which also planned for the worst, has been stood down.

In the event of an emergency control room needing to be set up, the council’s top team will have to debunk to the old underground control centre beneath the former library building at County Hall. South Walks House, the former West Dorset headquarters, has no emergency generator should power fail. An alternative location for council teams would be the Crookhill council depot in Weymouth.