Council grants to Dorset community and voluntary organisations are being guaranteed by the new Dorset Council – at least for a year.

Concern had been expressed that the new council, which comes into being in April 2019, might not honour existing grants given by the current district, borough and county councils.

Many were also calling for an early decision because several of the larger groups start their budgeting process in the coming weeks.

The decision to honour the grants has been widely welcomed – even though it fails to cater for any growth in services or keep up with inflation.

The new council’s executive committee, meeting in Dorchester on Monday evening, agreed to keep grant payments as they are for 2019-20 – but warn that there will be a review for the 2020-21 budget.

In rural Dorset the combined council grants amount to just short of £2million, shared between around eighty organisations.

The largest amount, of about £530,000, is given to the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Of the rest £376,000 goes to arts organisations; £232,00 to heritage organisations, mainly museums; £330,000 to community organisations including the Dorchester-based Dorset Community Action and the Volunteer Centre and a further £393,000 to individual organisations on a one-off basis.

Said Purbeck chief executive, Steve Mackenzie, who prepared the report looking at grants for the shadow council: “The voluntary and community sector had become concerned their funding might not be guaranteed by the new council and budget decisions would not be taken before the end of the calendar year. This would not give the sector sufficient time to reduce its staff costs if funding was not available…Portfolio Holders concluded the most appropriate way forward is to roll the current arrangements forward into 2019/20 and undertake detailed reviews of the grants for the 2020/21 budget.”

'At least we know where we are'

Chief officer of Volunteer Centre Dorset, Marie Waterman, said she was grateful for the early decision on grants, although the amount will be less overall because of a share of the money going to Christchurch. It also takes no account of inflation.

“The decision is good news, at least we know where we are at an early stage and can plan ahead…the councils rely on the voluntary sector more and more and realise they couldn’t do without us.”

She said that the centre and other groups had worked well together, with the shadow council, to achieve the decision.

“Dorset is one of the few counties where we are all working together with the local authorities. It bodes well for the future,” she said.

The council money will still only cover roughly one third of the Centre’s annual expenditure and there will still be a need for fund-raising and gaining other grant assistance to maintain services.

More than 2,000 volunteers are registered with the organisation with an estimated 186,000 carrying out voluntary work each year across Dorset.

Daniel Cadisch, who runs the Dorchester, Sherborne and North Dorset CAB, also welcomed the news and praised the shadow council’s approach.

“It is set at the current level, but importantly we know what we will get and can now plan ahead at a time when there is increasing demand for our services, especially the increasing work which has been caused by the Government’s welfare reforms,” he said.

In 2017-18 his bureau staff helped 8,736 local people with 19,400 issues – achieving £3.8million in payments and grants which were due to them.