THE chief executive of Christchurch and East Dorset Councils has apologised after a press release from pro merger pressure group was circulated to all elected members by a senior officer.

The release from Uniting the Conurbation (UTC) calls on all councillors to support the merger of Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch.

Dorset's nine councils all vote this month on proposals to abolish all the existing authorities are create two 'super unitaries.'

One would cover the conurbation and the second would see the merger of Dorset County Council, East Dorset, North Dorset, West Dorset and Weymouth and Portland.

The release sent out by UTC and quoting former Bournemouth leader Douglas Eyre says the move is long overdue. Mr Eyre said: "The barriers being put up...... are based in the past."

Christchurch councillors voted last month not to join with Bournemouth but will debate again at the end of the month.

The UTC release was distributed by email to all East Dorset and Christchurch councillors by the democratic services officer, against the protocol that local government officers do send out material on behalf of pressure groups.

It was also sent to all Poole councillors by an officer at the instruction of Tim Martin, BoP's head of legal.

One EDDC councillor told the Echo: "This was wholly inappropriate and unacceptable.

"We are on the verge of a critical decision and this does not look very good does it? It is not the role of officers to pass on political propaganda on behalf of third parties. I am surprised that a senior officer thought this was okay."

Chief Executive, David McIntosh said: “We received a request to distribute a press release to our members on behalf of a third party.

"It was circulated in error and the group should have been requested to distribute it themselves using the contact details available on our website.

“It is not standard practice for us to distribute material on behalf of pressure groups and I would like to apologise for any confusion caused by this.”

However, Tim Martin took a different position. He said: “Borough of Poole’s Democratic Services are regularly asked, by third parties, to circulate information to all Members. Any such information is circulated on a without prejudice basis and is in no way endorsed by the authority.

“Democratic Services did ‘forward’ a press release produced by ‘Uniting the Conurbations’ to all members, however, we would have circulated appropriate information espousing alternative options if we had been asked.”

The release was not distributed by Bournemouth council staff.

Mr Eyre said: "I really didn't think there would be a problem here. If I was a still councillor I would want to have as much information as possible on this very important issue. However I do see that if I was still council leader I might be a bit upset if didn't agree with the views in the release. Perhaps there is a wider point of principle here."