Three Dorset councils have signalled their intention to work more closely together in a bid to save £6 million to support valued services.
North Dorset District Council, West Dorset District Council and Weymouth & Portland Borough Council have today (1 July 2014) expressed their interest in bidding for almost £1.5 million from the Transformation Challenge Award fund.
The fund has been set up by the Government to help local authorities transform how they work, and rethink the way services are delivered.
The full bid will be submitted in two parts by 1 October 2014:
Bid 1 from North Dorset District Council (NDDC) will propose the three councils share a chief executive and senior management team by 31 March 2015.
Bid 2 from West Dorset District Council (WDDC) and Weymouth & Portland Borough Council (W&PBC) will propose combining and developing joint services with NDDC.
The “expression of interest” document submitted today says the proposed ground-breaking tri-authority partnership would:
- Give the councils a stronger voice and larger influence within the county and on a larger stage
- Enable more flexible arrangements for democratic decision making
- Improve strategic planning for infrastructure and services in the three areas, as well as the county and sub-region
- Allow savings from shared systems, processes and services, as well as releasing resources to strengthen and protect the services that customers value most
- Prompt a review of the councils’ office accommodation with a view to making savings and driving regeneration
- Enable the councils to pursue commercial opportunities to generate income
In a joint statement, NDDC Leader Deborah Croney, WDDC Leader Robert Gould and Mike Byatt, W&PBC Briefholder for Corporate Affairs and Continuous Improvement, said:
“As the challenge intensifies for local authorities to deliver continuous improvement and still better value for money; the partners are discussing joining together to get the very best from one another’s achievements and experiences and to find additional ways to add value to communities at less cost.
“The partners believe that together they could provide a better and more flexible range of services, focussed on the needs and priorities of their communities and at less cost to the taxpayer.”
The proposed partnership would cover over half the rural county and serve a population of 235,000. The majority of the savings, an estimated £6 million by 2019/20, would come from better use of assets such as office buildings.
A business case will now be worked up for councillors to consider in early autumn. A full bid will be submitted in October 2014.
