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June 2021
The money, in grants and business rate relief, has been administered by finance
teams at Dorset Council. The high levels of payments had only been achieved by
transferring some of the council’s staff from their routine work to help with the
grant payments and benefit reliefs.
The payments have included £170m in business grants and £55m in business rate
relief with a further £32m is due to be paid out shortly in business re-start grants.
Dorset Council has been judged to be one of the best performing in the country in
how it has dealt with the operation.

Council’s Annual Meeting

At the annual Council Meeting on the 4th May it was agreed that the council’s
senior roles are all to stay the same for another year. This includes the leader, the
deputy leader and all the cabinet positions.
The meeting also agreed a recommendation to continue meeting virtually with
powers delegated to senior officers to enact committee and council decisions.
These will be passed as ‘minded to’ decisions until June 21st when social
distancing regulations are due to be relaxed..
We are all very disappointed by the Government’s decision not to allow virtual
meetings to continue as we have lobbied the Government to listen to council
leaders up and down the country and allow online meetings to continue. Dorset
Council, like others, do not have spaces big enough for all councillors to meet
whilst complying with the current Covid restrictions, although this will change if
restrictions are lifted in the third week of June. Affordable Housing Dorset Council
has exceeded its target for providing new-build affordable housing in the county
over the last 12 months. In a year like no other, with building sites restricted and
materials in short supply at times; 301 safe and affordable housing has been made
available for the residents of Dorset whilst the target was 300. Dorset currently has
over 6000 households on the housing register, and over 300 households in
temporary accommodation.

An £8m project monitoring cliff falls at key points along the Jurassic Coast
5G RuralDorset partnered with Dorset Council has announced it will develop a
coastal landslip monitoring system which will use 5G connected sensors to monitor
ground movement, temperature and rainfall so coastal landslips can be better
understood. It is hoped that the research can prove that by using 5G sensors, the
process of data collection can be made safer, more cost effective, responsive
and efficient, as well as contribute to coastal resilience in the face of climate
change and rising sea levels. The system will be trialled at Lyme Regis and Burton
Bradstock, which are both sites with active landslides posing public safety risks for
the local community and visitors. The current management and monitoring
systems at Lyme Regis represents a very significant cost to Dorset Council and we
hope the new system will provide significant savings in the future.

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