COUNCILS with lower council tax could use their reserves to top it up if local government reorganisation (LGR) plans are approved.

 

At present, residents under Dorset's nine councils pay different amounts of council tax, with Bournemouth and Poole councils demanding the least.

 

The LGR proposal, which is currently being considered by Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Sajid Javid, sets out plans to bring council tax rates in different areas in line over a 20 year period.

 

This has been described as unfair by some councillors, and as a "stealth tax bombshell" by Christchurch MP Christopher Chope. He said that under the plans, within a new unitary authority, Christchurch residents would essentially be subsidising those in Bournemouth and Poole.

 

However, the Daily Echo has learned that alternatives are being considered.

 

East Dorset District Councillor Alex Clarke, who heads that authority's task and finish group looking into LGR, said he had heard proposals that harmonisation could take place over a much shorter period.

 

"When we originally debated the LGR proposal one of the sticking points was over council tax harmonisation," he said.

 

"The information we have been given is it doesn't actually have to be 20 years, there are ways of doing it virtually immediately. I haven't been made party to where that information came from.

 

"In some way there would have to be an injection of cash to make up the difference so residents would not feel it.

 

"We were told there were ways now, apparently."

 

Cllr Clarke speculated that council reserves in Bournemouth and Poole might be used to make up the difference, "so it looks the same on paper".

 

Matt Prosser, chief executive of the Dorset Councils Partnership, which prepared the LGR proposal, said a "steady rather than sudden harmonisation" was still the goal.

 

"Under the Future Dorset proposal, no resident would see a council tax rise higher than the current 'limit', set by the government," he said.

 

"This 'limit' is the rate of council tax rise that Local Partnerships assumed, in their financial model, that residents would face anyway if the structure of local government remained as it is now."

 

He said council tax could not be raised above the limit in any area without a local referendum taking place.

 

"The proposal made to the Secretary of State assumes a steady rather than sudden harmonisation which minimises the loss of council tax - important for maintaining services - and ensures that no taxpayer would experience a rise in their council tax greater than the referendum limit," he said.