Hot Stories People are Talking About

• Council merger is drawing ever closer

  By  Weymouth-People at 09:00 on 01/09/10

  

  Two West local authorities have moved a step closer towards merging their bureaucracies. West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council are preparing to appoint one chief executive to manage both bodies. The appointment is the first step in merging the two staffing structures together, which will look to both improve services and make savings of £8.5 million over five years. Councillors from both...

• Don’t cut life from our countryside, pleads RSPB

  By  Weymouth-People at 10:00 on 24/08/10

  

  Billboards are to be put up close to the home of a West Conservative minister to urge him against funding cuts to services vital to the countryside. Campaigners from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) have targeted the constituencies of ministers responsible for deciding on budget cuts. Billboards reading “Don’t cut the life from our countryside” will be put up in fields and at road junctions,...

• Revenue and benefits merger ‘saved £1m’

  By  Weymouth-People at 09:00 on 19/08/10

  

  A pioneering partnership between Dorset councils claims merging departments and cutting staff numbers has saved £1 million. Four years ago West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council merged their revenues and benefits teams, the people responsible for collecting council tax and business rates, paying housing and council tax benefit, and investigating benefit fraud. Operating with fewer staff who now...

• Days off work cost council £13,000

  By  Weymouth-People at 11:00 on 06/08/10

  

  MORE accidents and days were lost off work at West Dorset District Council than any other of the neighbouring councils resulting in thousands of pounds of taxpayers money lost. A new report released last week by the council revealed staff took almost 318 days off work due to accidents in 2008/09, three times more than the council’s target of 110. Based on the average salary of a manual employee, the days off work have cost the...

• Councils to share services

  By  Weymouth-People at 07:38 on 02/08/10

  

  STAFF from West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council will soon find themselves working together in one of the biggest shake ups in local government for 35 years. Weymouth and Portland councillors last week backed plans to deliver shared services across both areas. Councillors were told how the move, which has not been attempted anywhere else in the country, would protect and improve services and save...

View more…