QUESTIONS have been raised about the “culture of secrecy” surrounding a number of groups set up to discuss Local Government Reorganisation in the conurbation.

Around ten task and finish groups have been set up by the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Joint Committee covering a range of issues ahead of the impending new unitary authority.

However details of what these bodies have been discussing has remained private, with summary updates provided to meetings of the joint committee.

Cllr David Jones, who sits on the body as a representative for Dorset County Council, raised his concerns about the approach being taken at a Christchurch Borough Council scrutiny committee meeting.

“There has been a culture of secrecy since the hands across the sands,” Cllr Jones said.

“They could use formally set up sub-committees which would have to publish the information.

“Instead they decided to use task and finish groups which are not covered by the remit of the Local Government Act 1972 which require meetings of councils to be public.”

Christchurch Borough Council has two representatives, Cllr David Flagg and Cllr Trish Jamieson, on the joint committee. At least one of the councillors sits on each task and finish group.

However Cllr Jones said he has been told that no one outside the members of the respective task and finish groups are allowed to attend the meetings.

“What we have is the situation of the partial information in a report made by the task and finish groups,” Cllr Jones added.

“We do not see the discussions that have taken place and what material was presented at these groups. I have asked for the papers to be published. This secret approach is a concern for not just the people of Christchurch, but also people in both Bournemouth and Poole.”

At the last month's meeting of the joint committee Cllr Jones put forward a motion, seconded by Poole Liberal Democrat councillor David Brown, to make the task and finish group papers publicly available where possible.

Concerns were raised regarding the sensitivity of the papers and Cllr Jones' motion failed due to a lack of support from other members.

Cllr Janet Walton, chair of the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Joint Committee, said: “Each task and finish group reports to the joint committee.

"The reports presented to the joint committee are public reports and therefore are subject to scrutiny in each council. Each task and finish group will publish information with these reports as part of the requirement to ensure the decisions made by the joint committee are taken with all relevant information available.

"If information is confidential in any way, for example because it contains sensitive information about individual service users or council employees, it would be inappropriate for it to be placed in the public domain. However, information contained within reports to the Joint Committee will, insofar as is legally possible, be in the public domain.”