ELECTIONS due to take place in Dorset next year may be scrapped in a bid to save £800,000.

In 2017, elections are due to be held to appoint councillors to Dorset County Council.

But at a meeting of DCC’s Full Council, councillors voted to say that they did not wish for elections to take place in 2017 due to the potential plans for a unitary authority to be formed in Dorset.

Talks are currently taking place across Dorset on plans to form unitary councils in Dorset that would see borough and district authorities scrapped.

With the timeframe that is currently set out, elections will be held for the new unitary authority in 2018.

A county council election costs around £800,000.

Councillors believe that it would be a waste of money to have a county council election in 2017 for just 12 months.

However, a report to the council stated that a submission would have to be made to the government by November 30 this year to defer the elections and this is before the time the council will be asked to make a decision on local government reform.

Any decision to make a submission regarding the county council elections would need evidence why, a firm local government reform proposal agreed with all partners including borough and district councils as well as the county would be necessary to make this case.

The council’s report concluded that it would not be practical to ask the county council to make a decision to make a submission for deferral by November 10 unless the decision on local government reform has been made.

Cllr Andy Canning was one of the councillors who spoke out against the plans to hold elections next year, calling it “extraordinary” to spend £800,000 on an election for 12 months.

During the discussion on the exploring options for the future of local government in Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole, councillors also raised concerns over a public consultation and what questions would be asked.

The council will be going out to a large scale public consultation alongside the other eight principal authorities in Dorset in September and October this year.

As reported in the Echo, DCC has been working with district and borough councils to become involved as well as working with town and parish councils, which are expected to take on more responsibility if unitary authorities are formed in the council.

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