OPPOSITION to Local Government Reorganisation in Christchurch showed no "significant change" in the months leading up to the merger's approval, according to a junior minister.

This is despite a referendum in December showing the town was overwhelming against joining with Bournemouth and Poole councils.

The response comes as Christchurch MP Sir Christopher Chope continues to lobby communities secretary Sajid Javid following his decision to back the Future Dorset proposals.

Sir Christopher asked Mr Javid to what extent local consent changed among the citizens of Christchurch and their elected councillors from his minded-to announcement in November last year and the cut off for responses from authorities in January.

In response, Rishi Sunak MP, parliamentary under-secretary for housing, communities and local government, said the level of support for the Dorset unitary proposal from Christchurch "has shown no evidence of significant change".

He added: "The representative household survey which formed part of the public consultation undertaken by all nine Dorset councils in 2016 showed that across the whole area 65 per cent of the public support the proposal and there was an absolute majority of respondents to the open consultation questionnaire in support of the proposal.

"The same open questionnaire also showed that 57 per cent of respondents in Christchurch opposed the proposal.

"In the local advisory poll that Christchurch undertook in November and December 2017, 84 per cent of a 54 per cent turnout opposed the proposal – equivalent to 45 per cent of the electorate. In Christchurch, in January 2017 eight councillors supported the proposal, and in January 2018 eight councillors made representations in support of the proposal."

Both East Dorset District Council and Purbeck District Council withdrew opposition to the plans to merge the existing local authorities in Dorset into two unitary bodies.

This left Christchurch as the only council against the mergers and Mr Sunak said this means that across the whole of Dorset nearly 80 per cent of councillors are now in favour of the proposal.

Sir Christopher said: "They are desperate to try and show that the referendum did not produce any additional information to change the situation.

"If it was so obvious that Christchurch was against the proposals, why did the secretary of state (Mr Javid) encourage us to have a referendum?"