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News

Councils Team Up to Lobby for Fairer Funding

The leaders from Councils across Dorset met at Upton House in Poole on October 10 to discuss the unfair deal they get in Local Government Funding.

The meeting was set up by invitation of the Leader of the Borough of Poole, Cllr Brian Leverett. Those who attended included the Leader of Bournemouth Borough Council Cllr Richard Smith, Dorset County Council Leader Cllr Tim Palmer, East Dorset District Council Leader Cllr Derek Burt, North Dorset District Council Leader Cllr David Whitehead, Purbeck District Council Leader Cllr Bill Trite and Christchurch Borough Council Deputy Leader Cllr David Fox.

At the meeting the leaders agreed they would get together to jointly lobby the Government for more money, arguing there were specific anomalies in the region which led to their councils receiving less than other parts of the country.

Borough of Poole Leader, Cllr Leverett said: “We reached an agreement that we would make a joint representation to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and to our MP’s pointing out the particular differences encountered by the Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole area.  We will point out that historically we are low spending authorities and therefore can’t absorb those extra burdens put on us by Government without extra funding.

“Residents in this area are living in properties which are more highly valued than elsewhere in the UK and as a consequence their banding tends to be higher than similar properties in other parts of the country, which means they are already paying a much higher Council Tax. We will be asking Government to address this by giving us a far better Revenue Support Grant than historically has been the case.”

Rachael Mills, Media Relations Manager, Communications, Borough of Poole tel 01202 633295