IT would be “very foolish” if Christchurch was not in the room for discussions with other councils over the future of local government in Dorset.

That warning from the Conservative leader Ray Nottage came just days ahead of the crunch meeting of the full council next Tuesday.

A meeting of the policy and resources committee laid bare the split on the council between the leadership team, which favours the creation of a unitary with Bournemouth and Poole, and ‘backbenchers’ who say the case for change has not been made.

Last week 11 members of the scrutiny committee took that view and voted accordingly.

But on Thursday, P&R agreed that an internal working party report, upon which scrutiny, in part, based its decision, should be given “little weight”.

Cllr Lisle Smith claimed it was “biased in favour of finding fault” with the merger proposal.

And in a swipe at working party chairman Cllr David Jones, Cllr Bernie Davies said the report “was the work of one man”.

But the mayor, Cllr Trish Jamieson, said: “There is no point in having committees if their work and views are going to be disregarded.”

Cllr Margaret Phipps said the electors of Christchurch would be worse off because there would be substantially fewer councillors and therefore less representation. Councillors agreed to accept three independent expert reports and send them to full council, including one by PwC.

“These are credible reports from professionals about the case for change, despite some people thinking it’s a fix,” said Cllr Claire Bath.

She added: “This would not be a greater Bournemouth council. It’s not a takeover. It would be a new council. There has been scaremongering in the press.”

P&R chairman Cllr Trevor Watts said: “It’s a Mickey Mouse name for something that doesn’t exist.”

The full councils at Bournemouth and Purbeck also debate the unitary plans on Tuesday, preceded by East Dorset on Monday.