Auditors say they are satisfied with the annual accounts of both West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough – with both offering value for money.

The annual reports, which go before both councils in the coming week, say there are no significant problems in the annual accounts.

In the case of West Dorset the auditors, KPMG, say the council’s budget for the current financial year allows for savings of £710,000.

At the end of the last financial year the council reported an overall surplus on its net expenditure budget of £1.8million which was added to the council’s General Fund, giving that fund a current balance of £26.7 million.

“While there will clearly be challenges to delivering a balanced budget in 2018/19, the arrangements that management have put in place are reasonable and have a number of contingency options dependent on political decisions. We therefore consider this supports an unqualified value for money conclusion,” said the auditor’s report.

Similar words are used to describe the 2017-2018 Weymouth and Portland Borough Council end of year financial report.

Here the budget prediction for the current year identifies a need for £945,000 in savings.

As in the case of West Dorset, WPBC also achieved a surplus on its net expenditure budget for 2016-17, adding £1.7million to its General Fund which stood at £7.8million at the end of March.

The auditors say that with the two councils, and North Dorset District Council, sharing services there was the chance that expenditure and income could have, mistakenly, been attributed to the wrong authority – but they have found no evidence that this has happened and praise the three authorities for their co-operation and willingness to do so for the benefit of council taxpayers.

The auditors suggested some minor, administrative changes to the way certain records are dealt with in both councils.