COUNCILLORS have hit out at the decision to spend around £1million of public money on a new library in Dorchester at a time when Dorset County Council faces a ‘financial hurricane’.

There was a heated debate at a meeting of the full council as members eventually voted through plans to relocate the county town library and the adult learning centre to the office block that forms part of the proposed Charles Street development.

Liberal Democrat councillors voiced strong opposition to the proposal in the light of the council’s current financial plight, as the authority tries to find cuts of around £48million.

However, the council’s Conservative majority saw the relocation voted through.

Councillors were told that the move would cost the authority around £1million in capital costs and a further £196,000 every year for the next 25 years.

Dorchester councillor Trevor Jones was one of several opposition councillors to speak out over the timing of committing to such expenditure.

He said: “This would be appropriate in the best of all possible worlds but we are on the brink of the worst of all possible worlds.

“There is a financial hurricane about to hit this authority.”

Coun Jones added: “In the next three months we will have to find colossal savings, the biggest ever in the history of this authority by a long way; this is not the way to start.

“I plead with you to use a bit of common sense and not start the most savage cuts in the history of this authority with this minor spending spree.”

Fellow local councillor Richard Biggs said in an ‘ideal world’ he too would like to see a new library for the town, but questioned the need to spend a significant amount of money at the current time when there were high user satisfaction levels with the current library.

He said: “I cannot see how you can justify it.”

Coun Karl Wallace added: “We are looking at budget cuts and getting rid of potentially 750 staff.

“It’s obscene that we are looking at a new library right now.”

Cabinet member for environment and leader of West Dorset District Council Robert Gould declared an interest and spoke at the meeting before leaving while the item was debated.

He said the move would enable co-location with the district council and would also pave the way for the county council to reduce its property portfolio by moving staff from other offices into the current library building at Colliton Park.

Council leader Angus Campbell said: “I fully understand the straightened circumstances we are all in but I have on many occasions said that we should not close in on ourselves as you can lose opportunities we have got coming up in the future.”