Dorchester town councillors have voted themselves a £20 a year pay rise – putting their annual allowance up to £1,060.56 a year.

Councillors heard at their policy meeting on Tuesday evening that during the last four-year cycle 19 councillors collected their payments but one chose not to.

The increase is tied to pay awards for council staff and was previously £1,039.80 a year. In 2016-17 it was £1,009.32.

At the same meeting councillors were told that the town had ended the financial year slightly underspent on its planned budget and had £1.45million in reserve funds, £295,000 higher than the budget set in January 2019.

Some of the additional funding was due to a contribution from the former district council of £90,000 to the cost of resurfacing works and other landscaping around the Town Pump; a £59,000 underspend on the revenue budget and under spends of £60,000 on projects including the South Street refurbishment, improvements to The Walks and on Christmas lights.