DEBTS owed to Dorset Council now run into tens of millions of pounds with significant sums still not paid after a number of years.

At the end of July the amount of sundry debt stood at £37.3million – although £27.4m of this relates to deferred payment arrangements for adult social care, usually where a person’s house is used against care payments.

Figures from an internal council audit show around £1m in debt written off by the authority as irrecoverable.

On Council Tax Dorset is performing at a similar level to ‘average’ authorities, collecting just over 96 per cent of the amounts due, around £393million, which provides most of the council’s income.

A committee heard that the council differentiated between those who were having trouble paying, giving them help and support, and those who chose not to pay, or delayed payments, where legal action was a real possibility.

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For Business Rate the council is slightly under-performing on its collection rates, 1 per cent down on the national average, although this is an improvement on the previous few years, some of which were affected by Covid.

In Housing an overspend of £270,000 is forecast, largely due to the Bad Debt Provision.

Independent member of the council’s Audit and Governance committee, Simon Roach, said this week that he worried that some of the council’s long-term debts could eventually have to be written off because not enough was done to deal with it earlier.

He said the figures include almost £2m in the Place directorate which has been outstanding for more than a year.

Historic debt figures, taken from a council table, show £1.3million outstanding from pre 2019; £928,000 in 19/20; £1.34m in 20/21; £1.69m in 21/22; £3.12m in 22/23.

Committee chairman Cllr Gary Suttle (Con, Swanage) said he had no doubt that the overall level of money owed to the council was too high and would need to be addressed. He said it was something which the committee needed to look at again.