THE prospect of a council tax freeze for many Dorset bill-payers could come with a threat of more cuts to services 12 months later.

The government has said councils have a “moral duty” to keep bills down and is offering a one-off grant to help them freeze council tax this year.

But the support will be withdrawn next year, leaving authorities to plug the gap.

Cllr John Beesley, acting leader of Bournemouth council, said the council would be freezing bills.

He said the government was giving an extra grant equivalent to 2.5 per cent in council tax.

But he warned: “We would then need to make that 2.5 per cent up. That has quite an implication.”

Grant money provided by the government towards last year’s tax freeze would be withdrawn after three years, he said.

But he added: “We will be taking advantage of it. One of our key pledges is to keep council tax increases as low as possible.”

Borough of Poole is expecting to freeze council tax for the second year in a row.

Council leader Cllr Elaine Atkinson said: “While Poole is one of the lowest funded unitary authorities in the country, we do recognise the pressure on household budgets.

“It’s our aspiration to freeze council tax again this year. However the community must understand the effect this will have in future years.”

Dorset County Council is working to plug a £57million budget black hole, with unions and council staff already describing existing cuts as “the worst the county has ever seen”.

Council leader Cllr Angus Campbell said: “We do appreciate that the people of Dorset – as well as the councils – are hard pressed at the moment and we will do our very best to try to balance that particular conundrum.

“But I cannot go into any more detail at this stage.

“Council tax budget issues will start to come through the committee system soon – clearly we’ve already done a lot of work, but that has been without anything going for either recommendation or decision.”

North Dorset District Council’s communications manager Peter Hyde said: “It’s quite likely we will not be freezing council tax.

“We currently have the lowest council tax in Dorset. People here pay £104.78 for a Band D property, in comparison to £174 in Christchurch.”

Any increase would be less than 3.5 per cent, he said.

• EAST Dorset District Council leader Cllr Spencer Flower said he expected members to vote for the freeze. He said: “We’re trying to get a handle on council tax.”

• CHRISTCHURCH council leader Cllr Ray Nottage said: “Early indications are that our members will support a council tax freeze along with our East Dorset partners.”

• NEW Forest council leader Cllr Barry Rickman said he would back a freeze.

He added: “We are safeguarding essential frontline services.”