Councillor Flower, October 22, highlights growing demand for Dorset Council services and hints at reduced financial support from central government.
Let me supply a few figures. In 2010-11 Dorset (County) Council received £80 million in Revenue Support Grant (RSG) from government, contributing to a budget of £260 million (estimated) i.e. around a third of the total.
By 2019-20 the RSG had fallen to zero, with a council budget of £304 million.
Nationally, councils have seen a 60% reduction in RSG. This has resulted in big reductions in some services e.g. 800 libraries and 900 youth centres closed.
I do not have the figures for Dorset. A decade of Conservative government austerity has seen council services severely cut in many areas.
Will Councillor Flower accept that it is his own party that has mostly caused these damaging cuts in vital local services?
JOHN TOMBLIN
Littlemoor Road, Weymouth
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