JUST two months into the financial year Dorset Waste Partnership (DWP) is being warned it could be facing a £1.1 million overspend.

Much of this forecast for next April is being attributed to rising costs in the disposing of recyclable materials and inflation for fuel.

The news comes after councils in the rural county shared a £1.37million ‘windfall’ from the DWP from a good trading year in 2017-18.

They are now being warned that difficult trading conditions in the current year mean the partnership is unlikely to see such good figures again.

The money has been returned to the councils that jointly own the partnership, which was set up to deal with the county’s waste.

Figures before the DWP joint committee on June 11 show the organisation was £1.98million up on expected figures at the end of the last financial year. Most of this has now been paid back to partner councils with £613,000 being deposited in a reserve fund and £383,000 being set aside for pay awards.

Councillors will be told by DWP treasurer Jim McManus that the reserve fund now stands at just over £1.2million, with a revenue budget this year of £33.5million. This fund may have to be used to meet the predicted budget shortfall – rather than ask Dorset councils for more money.

The 2018-19 predicted overspend of £1.1million is mainly caused by China cutting back on the amount of international waste it imports, together with inflationary costs on fuel and other items.

Rising fuel prices towards the end of the last financial year has already cost DWP £52,000 more than it anticipated – although it made £263,000 above projected figures from the countywide garden waste service. It had originally been thought that no more than 40,000 Dorset households would sign up for the service, but 48,000 - more than 20 per cent of the county’s homes - have now done so.

Another plus for DWP over the last financial year was £146,000 more than expected from commercial waste, with several large Dorset businesses switching to DWP from private contractors.

Of the money repaid to Dorset councils, the biggest share, £882,470, went to Dorset County Council with West Dorset District Council gaining £123,409, Weymouth and Portland Borough Council £100,228, East Dorset £81,406, North Dorset £74,074, Purbeck £55,853, and Christchurch £54,561.