POOLE Bay Council should be the name of the new authority covering the conurbation, a councillor says.

Bournemouth councillor Nick Rose says his choice both references a geographical feature common to all three boroughs and will help dismiss accusations that his town intends to “swallow up” the others.

“Poole Bay is one of our only natural, real places which encompasses Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch,” he said.

“It would also alleviate the problem over Bournemouth ‘taking over’.

“Bournemouth is such a new town, with no history, unlike Poole and Christchurch. Poole is in the Domesday Book, and Christchurch goes back well before that.

“We are just talking about the name of the council, 99 per cent of the population are not going to give a stuff about it. They just want the bins collected and streets cleaned.

“A lot of this is a hoo-ha by people who care too much about this sort of thing.

“People will still come to visit the individual towns.”

Several other possible names for the new authority have been bandied about, albeit no formal discussion has yet taken place in public.

David Trenchard from the Uniting the Conurbation campaign group has suggested Sandbourne - the name given to Bournemouth by Thomas Hardy in the fictionalised ‘Wessex’ depicted in his novels.

However Hardy had also devised a name for Poole - Havenpool - and seems to have skipped Christchurch out.

Other suggestions the Echo has come across include the arts-themed ‘Bay City’ and the accurate ‘South East Dorset Council’.

Cllr Rose was not enthusiastic about the latter of these options.

“It is an example of the most unimaginative, civil service twaddle.

“Poole Bay rings a lovely bell. It connects to the second largest natural harbour in the world, Poole Harbour.

“It is already a feature, our beautiful, beautiful coastline. We should milk it.

“I have thought about this a lot over the past few years, it always comes back to Poole Bay.”

A temporary name for the new authority will be decided by the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Joint Committee, and is likely to be brought up at its meeting today, at Bournemouth town hall at 10am.

Committee chairman Janet Walton has said the final name could potentially be put to residents to decide.