SERVICE chiefs and senior councillors will plead for funds in a so-called “star chamber” in a bid by County Hall leaders to manage a £48.6 million funding shortfall.

Cabinet members at Dorset County Council will each make their department’s case before a five-strong panel including leader Cllr Angus Campbell and chief executive David Jenkins.

Cllr Campbell told the Daily Echo that the historically under-funded council now faced the biggest challenge in its history.

Asked if he thought the government had been fair to councils, he said: “I don’t think fairness comes into it. I’m a pragmatist. The country is very much in debt. Most of us trying to deal with it were not in any way responsible, but everyone has to bear the burden,” he said.

The most important thing is to keep vulnerable people in Dorset protected, but to say that frontline services won’t be affected would be foolish.

“Thinking the unthinkable is not a term I’d normally use, but it’s accurate in this case. We’ve got to innovate. Forced change on this scale is hugely uncomfortable, but it’s also a huge opportunity.”

Cllr Campbell and cabinet member for resources Cllr Spencer Flower asked for the Star Chamber, whose panel will also include finance chief Paul Kent.

Mr Jenkins said the chamber – named after a 17th-century panel to judge the great and good and used by the coalition government to determine £81bn of public spending cuts – would focus minds.

“We are talking about looking at the whole range of services that the county council provides. That’s why we want this Star Chamber approach so that each member can look at their priorities,” he said.

He said the council’s biggest headache had come from the “front-loading” of the funding cuts – forcing it to deliver more than £10m of savings next year.

“We are introducing a freeze on all staff vacancies and a moratorium on all uncommitted capital projects, but all these things by themselves are not sufficient,” he said.

Council workers are at the centre of a £5.8m targeted reduction in staff-related costs, including reduced redundancy settlements, a pay freeze, and changes to sick pay.

Pamela Jefferies, spokesperson for the Dorset branch of trade union Unison, said council workers had been forced to carry the can for the £1.3 trillion bank bail-out.

“This is an appalling time for workers – the same workers who are supposed to be motivated and deliver savings while their colleagues are going,” she said.