LOCAL taxpayers are counting the cost of AFC Bournemouth's financial crisis, which has left debts to Bournemouth council and Dorset Police unpaid.

The football club went into administration owing £5.8 million to a total of 320 creditors.

And these include Bournemouth Borough Council, which is said to be owed £242,204.31 and Dorset Police Authority, owed £59,218.49.

Other public bodies, ultimately funded by taxpayers, are also affected. The Inland Revenue is owned £629,133.23 and Customs and Excise £344,295.41.

As creditors, representatives from Dorset Police and Bournemouth council are entitled to attend the meeting on April 7 and vote on Jeff Mostyn's bid to buy the club.

Bournemouth council has told the Echo it will be represented at the meeting but would not confirm how the council will vote. A spokesman for Dorset Police said they had not yet made a decision to attend or vote.

If the meeting agrees to sell the club to current chairman Jeff Mostyn for £1 million, all creditors will receive just over 10 per cent of what they are owed.

In papers circulated to shareholders by the club's administrators, the money owed to Bournemouth council is broken down into four separate debts.

These are £16,007.00 in unpaid business rates, which would have been collected by the council and given to the government, £4,262.16 in unpaid rent for the land at Kings Park and £5,081.90 owed to the technical services department.

The remainder is a sum of £216,853.25, which is the remainder of a £250,000 council loan towards the building of a new stadium. But this debt is being disputed, as councillors converted this loan to a grant more than a year ago.

Judith Martin, Head of Resources, said: "There are four specific sums owing to the council. The largest is £216,853.25 which relates to a loan provided to the football club a number of years ago. Following negotiations between the leisure services business unit and the football club, this loan was being repaid by services in kind. The worst-case scenario is that the council will no longer receive these services."

A Dorset Police spokesman said their debt related to the cost of policing home games between May 2005 and April 2006. He said the debt would not affect the police authority's budget or the council tax precept. The Daily Echo contacted chairman Jeff Mostyn to ask about these debts and was referred to finance director David Musker, who was unavailable before the Echo went to press.