COVID has saved Poole’s mayoral office £12,000 in entertaining – because events were few and far between as a result of health restrictions.

Charter Trustees were told that the entertainment budget only spent £1 in the past year… although nobody could say what the £1 went on.

Current mayor Cllr Tony Trent speculated that it could have been for milk, or squash, at a meeting.

The pandemic has also resulted in other savings with additional payments into the reserves from budgets which were not used –  with the fund now at £118,000, around 85per cent of the annual precept to council taxpayers.

A similar situation exists with the Charter Trustees for Bournemouth, which has £67,000 in reserves,  with both towns now having to decide whether or not to use some of the stand-by funding, or to charge less on the precept in the coming financial year, which begins in April 2023.

Both will be holding meetings in the coming weeks to come up with a recommendation.

Auditors have described the amounts being held in Charter Trustee reserves in both cases as being too high and not needed to cover unforeseen situations.