Dorset County Council
Dorset County Council | |
---|---|
Non-metropolitan county council | |
Structure | |
Seats | 46 councillors |
Length of term | 4 years |
Elections | |
First-past-the-post | |
Last election | 4 May 2017 |
Meeting place | |
County Hall, Dorchester | |
Website | |
www |
Dorset County Council (DCC) was the
Responsibilities for services
Dorset County Council's responsibilities included schools, social care for the elderly and vulnerable, road maintenance, libraries and trading standards.
The county council's area was also administered by six smaller authorities that have their own
No. | District | Type of council | Population (mid-2008 est.) | Extent of area (hectares)[3] |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Weymouth and Portland | Borough council | 65,000 | 4,175 |
2 | West Dorset | District council | 97,200 | 108,148 |
3 | North Dorset | District council | 67,900 | 60,992 |
4 | Purbeck
|
District council | 46,000 | 40,440 |
5 | East Dorset | District council | 85,900 | 35,437 |
6 | Christchurch
|
Borough council | 45,800 | 5,040 |
Dorset Waste Partnership
In 2011 Dorset County Council became "host authority" for the newly-formed Dorset Waste Partnership, whereby, in theory, the six borough and district councils within Dorset worked together to collect and dispose of the county's waste. As host authority, Dorset County Council employed the waste partnership's staff and provided support facilities, such as IT, customer services and procurement.[4] A new system of kerbside collections was rolled out across the county in five stages, beginning with Christchurch in October 2012.[5]
The new service attracted criticism from the start[5] and came under particularly heavy censure from October 2014, when it was rolled out across Weymouth and Portland: by the end of the month the Council was receiving 1,100 calls a day relating to the new service,[6] while a "spokesman" admitted that 300 bins had still not been delivered to Weymouth and Portland's residents.[6] Bags of waste meanwhile mounted up on Weymouth's streets: the partnership refused to collect them on the grounds that the waste was not in authorised "blue sacks",[7] but residents claimed that they had never been issued with these sacks in the first place.[7] Complaints, mainly involving missed collections, continued into 2015 and 2016.[8][9][10][11]
In February 2015 it was revealed that the partnership was £2.76 million over budget,[12] and Steve Burdis, director of the Dorset Waste Partnership, was suspended from his post as three separate investigations into the overspend got underway.[13] A report by Dorset County Council's monitoring officer found that unlawful activity had contributed to the overspend,[14] including the awarding of two vehicle hire contracts worth £765,000 and £808,000 without following compliant tendering processes:indeed, in the case of the £765,000 contract, "it seems that no tendering process was followed at all".[14] In addition, a three-year consultancy contract worth £270,000 "also amounted to an unlawful direct award".[14] Steve Burdis was dismissed in March 2016.[15] As for the Dorset Waste Partnership, it effectively ceased to exist in April 2019 with the dissolution of Dorset County Council and the various borough and district councils; waste became the responsibility of the two new unitary authorities in Dorset, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council and Dorset Council, with most of the partnership's staff and assets being transferred to the latter.[4]
2015–19 local government reorganisation
In September 2015, the
History
The council was established in 1889 under the
See also
- List of articles about local government in the United Kingdom
- 2017 United Kingdom local elections
- Dorset County Council elections for historic elections to the council.
References
- ^ "County Hall". Dorset County Council.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (25 May 2018). "The Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole (Structural Changes) Order 2018". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- ^ "Standard Area Measurements (extent of the realm)". Office for National Statistics. 31 December 2007. Archived from the original (ZIP) on 10 January 2011. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
- ^ a b "About the Dorset Waste Partnership and Recycle for Dorset", Dorset Council website. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^ Bournemouth Echo, 5 November 2012. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^ a b "'Urgent' call for review of waste service as rubbish builds up in streets", Dorset Echo, 30 October 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^ a b "Waste partnership is standing firm on rubbish bags despite vermin fears", Dorset Echo, 16 December 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^ "Dorset Waste Partnership backlash at county council meeting", Dorset Echo, 13 February 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- ^ "Bins are still unemptied", Dorset Echo, 20 August 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- ^ "Dorset Waste Partnership slammed over missed collections", Dorset Echo, 26 August 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- ^ "RUBBISH! Pensioner, 79, dumps two weeks worth of recycling at Dorset Waste Partnership HQ in protest at service", Dorset Echo, 26 January 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- Bournemouth Echo, 4 February 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- Bournemouth Echo, 3 March 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- ^ a b c "Unlawful arrangements in summary", Part 2 of Monitoring Officer Report put before Dorset Waste Partnership Joint Committee, 11 March 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- Bournemouth Echo, 22 March 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- ^ "Future of local authorities being shaken up after plans for 'super council' emerge", Dorset Echo, 18 September 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- Bournemouth Echo, 10 January 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- ^ "New unitary authorities formally takeover from Dorset's nine councils". Public Sector Executive. 1 April 2019. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
- ^ "Local Government Act 1972". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
- ^ "The Dorset (Boroughs of Poole and Bournemouth)(Structural Change) Order 1995". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
External links
- Dorset for You Archived 3 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- Shadow Dorset Council Archived 7 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine