Disquiet is increasing amongst some Weymouth and West Dorset councillors with claims that local government reorganisation is unlikely to give communities all they want.

While some areas already have town councils running car parks and toilets – others are being told by the new unitary council shadow executive that they cannot have them.

In Weymouth, because a new town council is being created, most of the toilets will be transferred, but in West Dorset the shadow executive has refused to transfer the majority of loos.

Debates at two local councils were critical of the way local government reorganisation is working out.

In Weymouth, when the new town council met in shadow form for the first time on Thursday evening, some councillors expressed concern that much of what they might take on is likely to be a liability, with little in the way of income.

“It doesn’t seem we are going to have many opportunities to raise income…we are being offered the toilets, but the toilets are free so there is no income,” said Weymouth councillor Mark Tewkesbury.

Questions were also asked at the Weymouth meeting about the terms of assets being passed to the new council – the preferred route of the Dorset Council being for lease deals, rather than freehold.

Cllr Ian Bruce warned that the new town council should be careful about what it asked to have. He said that the beach, Esplanade and town’s green spaces, were all currently supported by car park income, but it was unlikely any of the car parks would become the property of the new town council.

“We shouldn’t take these things on unless there is some recompense,” he said.

At West Dorset earlier in the day Cllr Cheryl Reynolds said she failed to understand why the new council’s executive were not prepared to let local services, such as toilets, be run at local level by town and parish councils, which she believed would be cheaper and more responsive to local needs.

She said the shadow executive’s September decision about the toilets transfer had got the future relationship with West Dorset town and parish councils off to a bad start.

District council leader, Tony Alford, also a shadow executive member, said he was at a loss to understand some of the decisions: “Where we are today is not where I would like us to be,” he said. He was also critical of the amount of time talks about asset transfer had taken, admitting: “It has not progressed at the pace I would have hoped.”

Cllr Alford said the record of the shadow executive to refuse the transfer of public toilets in West Dorset gave no rationale for the decision.

Fellow shadow executive member Cllr Daryl Turner defended the decision for the new Dorset Council to retain assets and income-generating services. He said they were needed to pay for social care for vulnerable adults and children, both sectors which were increasingly expensive to meet demand.

“The shadow executive is trying to protect assets so they can decide what they want to do after April,” he said.