CHRISTCHURCH Borough Council has given the provisional thumbs-up to plans which could revamp radically its way of working in order to cut costs.

A partnership group comprising East Dorset District Council, North Dorset District Council and Christchurch Council has been working on a collaboration agreement to combine the revenues and benefits services to save money and improve efficiency.

If the move is successful, it could also pave the way for other services to be combined.

The partnership believes that by sharing the important service with two other partners, it will be able to reduce management costs and improve resilience while making the financial teams more cohesive and release office accommodation.

While satellite offices, such as the one-stop shop at Christchurch, would remain to ensure customer service is not affected, office space has been found for the back-room staff in East Dorset.

The move could save the council £290,000 over the first five years and £185,000 per year after that.

Leader of Christchurch Borough Council Cllr Alan Griffiths said: “We are in this together and I would not recommend that we sign up to this if not.

“Joint working is the only way forward. This is not going to go away.

“I predict that by 2011 we will have a 10 per cent reduction in government grants to local authorities, and there will be a crisis.

“We cannot squeeze any more out of our existing budgets. There is no more to find and we need to be creative.

“This is the way we should be going. If we proceed, we will weather the storm.

“If we don’t, then I can’t see how we will survive. This is the only way we can do so.”

Councillors unanimously gave the go-ahead to further work on the proposal which, if successful, could go live in October 2010.