PLANS for two neighbouring authorities to share their waste disposal and cleaning services are set to save almost £750,000 over five years, councillors were told.

Members of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s management committee approved plans for its waste services staff to join the Dorset Waste Partnership by April 2013.

Councillors also voted to produce a plan to bring together the borough council’s and West Dorset District Council’s waste and cleansing services to save a total of £735,000 between 2011 and 2016.

Councillor Brendan Webster told fellow committee members: “This has been a long time coming and has not come without its arguments along the way.”

He added that ‘across Dorset substantial savings will be found in the way that we manage our waste’ and that work on the proposal ‘has been done to the satisfaction of everybody.’ Coun Mike Goodman said that he used to have ‘concerns about joint working’ but that he had now been ‘convinced’ on the issue. The officers’ report said that the £735,000 of savings identified for the WestWey Waste Partnership would come from reductions in management and other support staff, reductions in operating costs, depot infrastructure and dealing with trade waste.

The projected savings were reduced by around £12,000 to account for investment in a depot to support collections in West Dorset.

n* It has already been announced that Weymouth and West Dorset will be linking up to deliver services under the partnership.

The move to create a single officer management and staffing structure is designed to cut running costs will save an overall total of £8.5 million over five years.

The two councils will continue to operate from their own sites, setting their own council tax.

Current chief executive of West Dorset District Council David Clarke will lead the new regime.