Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraphs 4.5 to 4.9 of the report laid before Parliament explaining the effect of the Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole (Structural Changes) Order 2018, for what reasons his Department encouraged Christchurch Borough Council to hold an advisory poll to inform the Council's representations to him without pointing out that the result of any poll would be assessed not in relation to the Christchurch area but in relation to the Dorset area as a whole.

The then Minister for Local Government made clear on 28 February 2017, in response to my Hon Friend’s Question UIN 65271, that we would reach a judgement in the round as to whether the proposal, if implemented, is likely to improve the area’s local government, commands a good deal of local support in the area, and whether the area itself is a credible geography for the proposed new structures.

The decision to hold an advisory poll to inform its representations was entirely a matter for the Borough Council. In the event, the Secretary of State had regard to all the representations received, including the outcome of the poll and representations made about it, before taking his decision to implement, subject to Parliamentary approval, the Dorset councils’ proposal.