Members of Christchurch Borough Council will next week consider taking up their seats on the Joint Committee to review Local Government Structures for the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch area at an extraordinary Full Council meeting on Tuesday 8 August 2017.
The Leader of the Council has received a letter inviting Christchurch Borough Council to consider joining the Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch Joint Committee from the Leaders of Bournemouth and Poole Councils. Any decision to join the committee would not change the vote taken by members in January not to support the Future Dorset proposal. Joining the committee would ensure Christchurch councillors are able to influence plans and have voting rights moving forward. Should the Secretary of State announce that he is ‘minded to’ support the Future Dorset proposal it would be for councillors to then decide the best way forward.
Cllr David Flagg (pictured), Leader of the Council, Christchurch Borough Council, said: “We voted in January not to be part of the Future Dorset submission and that decision stands.
“However, I will be recommending to members that we accept the invitation we have received from Bournemouth and Poole and take up our seats on the joint committee. The interests of Christchurch residents will be best served if our council shares in the debates and discussions while we await the decision of the Secretary of State.”
The role of the committee will be to look at things such as council tax harmonisation, the disaggregation of services and budgets for any new authority that might be created. A similar committee has been set up for the Dorset area council. East Dorset District Council and Purbeck District Council, both of whom voted not to support the Future Dorset submission, have voted to take up their seats on the Dorset area joint committee.
The meeting is scheduled to take place next Tuesday, 8th August and it is expected that you will be able to follow the debate on the councils twitter feed @cb_edd_councils or by using #CBCFullCouncil