Dorsetcouncil Reviews 

Trying to sort out a problem with council tax and getting absolutely nowhere!! Send in relevant documents twice and still not sorted....Will now be seeking legal action

This council is so lazy I live in a conservation area so planning permission pretty much needed for everything even permitted development needs checking. Reported a couple of planning issues.they report back we have no details . So haven't had permission but they don't do anything about it waste of time

Absolutely appalling service. They have one of the highest rates in the UK, and yet the service is abysmal! I moved to another county, and I have sent them an email twice, weeks before I moved out, but they keep marking my payments as outstanding! I tried to call them, and I was 20th in the queue, then 15, then 6, then 20 and after half an hour wait on the phone I went to 25th in the queue! They answered an email a month and a half after my inquiry, after they sent me a two different bills for what I owe them. I am now in Bedfordshire, and the council answered my queries within the same working day; real professionals. Disgrace.

A missed ordinary rubbish bin or recycling is one thing. My missed food waste bin means the food is not collected until the following week. So some of the food will have been in the bin for 2 weeks. The smell becomes horrendous. Now after this week's collection 90% of the food was left in the the bin and returned with the lid open for the flies, sun and wildlife to access it. Previously the food bin was thrown down onto the road with such force it broke the lid which we had to then repair. So yet again I have to spend time filling out online forms at DC and on here. Plus waiting for phone calls to be answered at DC. Enough! When I see DC reviews improve I may try again. For now I do not need the irritation and wasted effort.

A horrible council run by the oranges. Prices in the sky. planning rubbish. money hungry and not providing.

Had to use the toilets in trinity street Dorchester. You can smell them before you get in them.when I got in there the smell was shocking . The floor was black in places and I think urine aswell .also the hand cleaning machine was malfunction. Bad experience all round in am afraid.

Have Council workers forgotten where their wages come from?
Gone are the days when Council employees were aware of who paid their salaries, the phone systems are designed not to have their staff have to talk to you. My latest example is I tried to contact the Planning person who is listed as the lead inspector on all the documents relating to a development next to me, I did get an email come back to say that Ms. C. Hicks is on holiday so I thought I’d leave a message then follow it up with an email to ensure my request wasn’t missed, her we are almost one month later with my request having been completely ignored. if these elitist planning people don’t want to talk to taxpayers at the very least the enquiries should be passed on to someone to make contact with the person making an enquiry. This type of deflection and ignoring people only serves to elevate the tensions when every year we are asked to pay more and more in tax to support these quangos UPDATE December 2025: so apparently the last Hicks who was *in charge* had given permission to build on a flood plain, once this was pointed out (not by her) the revised plans went to planning and without any notification whatsoever to residents they were given permission for a 3 storey building, this Council (Planning Department) is not fit for purpose

You are elected to represent your constituents, yet you’ve stated on our behalf that we "welcome Ukrainian people" and even fly the Ukrainian flag at County Hall. I want to make it clear that this does not reflect the views of myself or my family. We are not in support of accepting more migrants at this time—particularly when so many in our own country are struggling with financial hardship and access to essential services like dental care, GP appointments, and hospital treatment.

Absolutely a waste of time the bin collection service is terrible I live in charlton down Dorchester the service is not any good i have noticed on household collection days particularly they pick and choose what they take i note in the village hall car park there is a house with two house hold bins but I notice on bin day the two bins are full and then there are extra black sacks left on the floor that is not allowed and this is regular. I also note they take bins around most of charlton down. In the same manner extra waste. But not in other parts of village. This adds to vermin issues . Also I have noticed particularly in the shop and deverel road area the street bins are being used for food waste . Truly terrible really.

John

I too have been waiting months to register/pay my council tax - they clearly don't need the money even though it would seem they are owed millions in outstanding payments!
Emails unanswered (including from top people), no chance of getting through on the phone, and even customer services ignored me.
Finally got my bill today but no hint of an apology or explanation. Still can't add CT to my services mind you.
And as for the charge compared to Wiltshire, unbelievable.

Been waiting for over two months to register for Council Tax. It only took five minutes leaving my previous council area but Dorset are exceptionally poor. They have ignored all my online forms and are impossible to contact by phone.

It slightly beggars belief that I am paying more for this rubbish than I was paying in Hampshire. Does all the money get spent on the coffin dodgers in Christchurch or something?

Tried to call Dorset Council and automated service said wait of 60 minutes to answer. This from one of the most expensive council tax councils in the country.

Absolutely awful council - what a sense of entitlement these employees have! - they forget they serve us as we pay their wages. Forget that, they’ll ride roughshod all over you anyway. Has anybody actually realised that when liability orders are issued they are actually printed by the council themselves - forget about due process, the court will have no record of your case number because they are all processed under a bulk process. They rent a room in the mags court and the overdue accounts are placed before a magistrate who can only issue a maximum fine of one pound - no matter, they are all rubber stamped and then the council staff go off and print off the liability orders - please note these were discontinued in 2003 but who cares about niceties - they circumvent this by issuing a ‘notice of liability’ order … yes you got it …look up the case of Wayne Leighton vs Bristol and Sutor ….

Had the misfortune of needing a toilet when visiting Dorchester. I'm not sure if they are all the same, but those on Trinity Street were abysmal! What exactly does council tax cover and are clean public conveniences an unreasonable expectation?!

Car park machines at Chrmouth don’t work in bad weather. Locals say that always happens. Council officers should write contracts that put the onus for reliability on suppliers.

We just learned that a new planning application by Aggregate Industries has been submitted to Dorset for a new quarry in Chard junction and that this is going to be considered by delegated power doing away with the checks and balances of a proper public scrutiny and consultation. This is outrageous in the light of several previous applications having been rejected for just reasons following proper consultation and consideration. It seems that Aggregate Industries have managed to find a way to try to get approval for a new quarry on the quiet!

Gone are the days when Council employees were aware of who paid their salaries, the phone systems are designed not to have their staff have to talk to you. My latest example is I tried to contact the Planning person who is listed as the lead inspector on all the documents relating to a development next to me, I did get an email come back to say that Ms. C. Hicks is on holiday so I thought I’d leave a message then follow it up with an email to ensure my request wasn’t missed, her we are almost one month later with my request having been completely ignored. if these elitist planning people don’t want to talk to taxpayers at the very least the enquiries should be passed on to someone to make contact with the person making an enquiry. This type of deflection and ignoring people only serves to elevate the tensions when every year we are asked to pay more and more in tax to support these quangos

Bins not collected (and not the first time).

Informed them and was told (by no-reply email) to leave the bins out and they'll be collected within 5 working days.
One week later and nothing.

Q. What exactly do we pay our Council Tax for?
A. Useless civil servants who wouldn't be able to get a job in the real world.

You take our money and can't even empty the bins.