DORSET Council’s leaders will be ‘called to account’ over what is seen as inconsistencies in asset transfers.

West Dorset councillors claim that after 18 months of talks and an ‘in principle’ decision to transfer some district-owned assets, including public loos, the shadow executive changed its mind and refused the deals.

Yet, councillors heard, some assets have been transferred in other areas, including a small car park and toilet block, at Corfe Castle.

West Dorset councillor Jacqui Sewell questioned how much time and effort had been wasted by 18 months of talks in West Dorset, which got nowhere.

She told Wednesday’s shadow overview and scrutiny committee that Dorset Council shadow leader Rebecca Knox had promised the new council would make a difference to residents and communities by designing services to meet their needs and to ‘connect and empower people.’

Cllr Sewell said she took that to mean delivering local services at a local level – but that had now been taken away in West Dorset by the shadow executive stopping the district council transferring assets to town and parish councils, and keeping car parks and other income-generating assets for itself.

“To me empowering people means allowing town and parish councils to be in charge of their own assets, especially those which WDDC have been in negotiations with town and parishes to transfer.”

She said she was ‘at a loss’ to understand why the obstacles to transfer had not been identified earlier, instead of wasting time and money talking about something which would, ultimately, be caught up in a rule about items to the value of £100,000 or more, not being eligible to transfer unless a special case could be made.

Committee chairman Cllr Trevor Jones said there was also confusion about how that rule was being interpreted – whether it related to single items, to one council, or to something else.

Cllr Shane Bartlett said the issue of transfer of assets had been ‘a mess’ since it started: “There hasn’t been a uniformed process throughout the county,” he said, claiming that some areas, with a small tax base, would find themselves disadvantaged in April if assets were not transferred to them to help boost income. He said that while Weymouth was being given special treatment, because a new town council was being set up, towns like Wimborne should be offered similar terms because of their inability to raise funds without the majority of the cost falling on local council taxpayers.

Shadow council interim monitoring officer Jonathan Mair said that while the shadow executive had made an ‘in principle’ decision about transfers it had not been consulted until late in the day about the West Dorset proposals. He said the shadow authority had then taken the view that the transfers, together with a package of financial support, which West Dorset District Council were offering, contradicted the transfer principles, including the £100,000 limit above which a ‘special case’ had to be made.

Cllr Jones said that if the principle was applied, across Dorset, there would be no transfers at all: “Not only until April, it’s indefinite.”

The shadow Dorset Council has consistently argued that it needs to maximise income to support statutory services including adult and children’s social services. The new council currently faces a £15.4million budget shortfall once it comes into being in April 2019.

The committee voted to call the shadow executive to account over the issue at its next meeting in December. It could mean shadow leader Rebecca Knox and relevant brief holders being questioned over the issue by the committee although it has no power either to make them appear or to take any action as a result of the hearing.