Tighter budget control has been called for by councillors at Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.

It comes after the authority ended the financial year with £712,000 more than expected – which could have been used to reduce the borough’s share of the council tax or be spent on projects, according to Cllr Ray Nowak.

There has also been criticism of the transfer of £175,000 from one account into another to help the Harbour Board.

Council leader Cllr Jeff Cant says the money was simply misattributed to the wrong budget: “It was a pity it wasn’t discovered a little bit earlier but the good news is it means there is more funds available for the harbour,” he told a meeting of the borough’s management committee.

Cllr Nowak said that the underspend money, which he claimed to be £941,000, could have been used to reduce the council tax or to pay for a number of practical projects, had it been known about sooner.

“The underspend means we need not have increased the council tax,” Cllr Nowak claimed, “or we could have spent it on a list of practical things.”

Cllr Kate Wheller agreed about the need to predict budget changes. She said she was pleased many of the borough’s litter bins were now being replaced – but said it might have been achieved earlier had councillors known about the underspend: “We have had to wait until the bin doors were falling off and they were rusting away to do this.”

Cllr Cant said steps would be taken in the coming months to make sure any variance in budgets were reported as soon as possible.

He said: “We must have better discipline in recording and reporting underspends on budgets. We need accurate predictions so we can get projects underway.”