1st March 2017
Councillor John Beesley, Bournemouth Borough Council Councillor David Flagg, Christchurch Borough Council Councillor Spencer Flower, East Dorset District Council Councillor Janet Walton, Poole Borough Council
Dear Council Leaders,
Reorganisation of Dorset Local Government
We understand that the majority of local authorities in Dorset have now given their support to a proposed reorganisation into two unitary authorities, one for the urban area of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and another for the rest of Dorset (option 2.b. in the consultation document).
Although a welcome step in the right direction, this excludes East Dorset from the new urban unitary authority despite the fact that most of East Dorset’spopulation lies within the economic area of our south-east Dorset conurbation.
A fully united conurbation is essential in the interests of efficiency and good governance and we urge you to ensure that the attention of the Secretary of State (Sajid David MP) is drawn to the anomaly and to obtain an undertaking from him that the Local Government Boundaries Commission will review the boundaries of the new unitary authorities before the proposed reorganisation is implemented.
We would very much appreciate being kept informed of progress in this matter. Yours faithfully,
John Probert UTC secretary
