ADDITIONAL meetings are to be arranged in Christchurch to scrutinise the work of the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch Joint Committee.

The move was agreed at a meeting of Christchurch Borough Council's scrutiny committee on Tuesday November 14.

This decision comes in the same week that an extraordinary full council meeting was held to discuss whether a referendum should take place on local government reorganisation proposals.

The joint committee meets on at least a monthly basis and Cllr David Jones said it was important for the council to come together regularly to keep up to date with matters arising from the joint committee.

"We need to scrutinise, we need to be able to ask questions and we need to be able to do that a much tighter interval than our present two month cycle." Cllr Jones said.

Council leader David Flagg said after discussions with a council officer, it was felt it would be appropriate for representations by the deputy leader and himself to be made at scrutiny committee meetings.

Cllr Flagg said extraordinary meetings of the committee would be necessary because scrutiny meetings only take place every two months.

The committee supported this approach in favour of a proposed task and finish group put forward by Cllr Jones, who had suggested a six member task and finish group to scrutinise the joint committee.

"I have discussed this with the leader before and the reason that I would suggest a separate group is that scrutiny has its own business," Cllr Jones said.

"The phrase that was used 'we have to continue the day job'.

"The reason I suggested a task and finish group, is that will only discuss the business of scrutinising the work of the joint committee."

Any extraordinary meetings will be open to the public and in-line with council policy streamed online unless the chairman believes there is a specific reason to suspend broadcasting.