DORSET County Council has voted through the latest wave of cuts.

Council leader Angus Campbell warned that the £15million of savings the council had cut from its budget for the coming financial year would be felt more than the £28million it had saved this year.

As part of its savings programme following the government spending review in 2010, the council had already earmarked £9.4million of savings for 2012/13 and members of the authority were asked to consider a further £5.6million to produce a balanced budget for the next year.

These new savings included reductions in funding of sports, arts and museums as well as cuts to the council’s community safety team.

In his annual budget speech Councillor Campbell warned: “We have just been through an extraordinarily difficult year of revenue budget reduction and, as we know, the process is set to continue.

“The numbers required for this year may be smaller but the implications for the services we are trying to protect are much increased.”

Coun Campbell revealed that, in line with the council’s predictions, the spending cuts so far had seen the council lose the equivalent of around 500 full-time posts through a combination of freezing vacancies, voluntary redundancies and compulsory redundancies.

The budget also included a proposed freezing of the council tax for the second year running, which would secure a one-off £5million grant for the council.

Coun Campbell said: “I believe it is right to extend the freeze for a further year, in order to provide some assistance to hard pressed Dorset households during the current difficult economic climate.”

The budget faced strong opposition from Liberal Democrat councillors, who voted against it, but the authority’s Conservative majority saw it voted through.

Coun Janet Dover, leader of the Lib Dem group, criticised cuts totalling £1.5million in children’s services as well as the proposed reduction of funding for the community safety team and the replacement of parish maintenance units.

She said the authority, which had made a ten per cent saving in senior management costs, should look at a ‘complete overhaul’ of management structures to achieve further savings.

Coun Dover said: “I don’t think ten per cent is enough compared to the huge sacrifices our staff have made.”

Several Lib Dem members also complained that the papers setting out the proposed cuts did not contain enough detail or the proposals were not set out clearly so it was easy to understand what the cuts would actually involve.

Coun Campbell issued a damning response to the opposition’s criticism.

He said: “I have never heard such a lame lot of excuses from the other side of this council not to support a budget.

“We had a huge amount of money taken out of our hands and we have to produce a service for the people of this county.”