SLASH the number of local councillors and save the public some money.

That’s the call being made as town halls face a spending squeeze which could put up council tax and cut services to the public.

Veteran Bournemouth councillor Ron Whittaker wants the number of councillors in each ward to be cut from three to two, in a move which would save around £167,000 in basic allowances alone.

He will ask a full council meeting tonight why the town should not follow the example of Tory leader David Cameron, who recently suggested cutting the number of MPs at Westminster.

Independent Cllr Whittaker said the number of councillors in Bournemouth – 54 representing 18 wards – had barely reduced since the 1970s, when members had many more committees to serve on.

He said most councillors worked hard but many did not have a heavy caseload of local problems.

“I’m the senior member and they can argue till the cows come home but I know some wards run very light.

“Some wards get half a dozen problems a month.

“I get an average of 10-15 problems a week,” the Throop and Muscliff councillor said.

“It’s time for a review. If we can’t do it, perhaps the government of the day should be doing this,” he said.

“You can’t ask the members of the public to reduce expenditure and costs and everything else and still retain the large number of councillors per ward.”

But he added: “Members aren’t going to vote for it. It’s like turkeys voting for Christmas.”

Bournemouth council’s Conservative deputy leader, Cllr John Beesley, confirmed the council would have to wait for a boundary review before it could suggest reducing the number of members.

“Clearly there could be some financial savings but alongside that, if ward members are doing their job, particularly on local issues within the wards, that will mean it will be difficult to have quite such coverage as exists at the moment.”

Poole has 42 councillors across 16 wards. The majority have three councillors, but six wards have two councillors.

Council leader Brian Leverett said he didn’t believe there was an “over-provision” of councillors in the borough.

He said: “The problem with a small council like Poole is simply having enough people to serve on all the committees.”

“If I were to make a plea to David Cameron it would be cut out all the red tape and data collection we’ve got to do simply to satisfy government regulations,” he added.

“That’s really where savings can be made.”

Cllr Whittaker also called for Bournemouth council’s chief executive and executive directors to have their pay examined along with the thousands of staff currently at risk of losing money in a review.

Cllr Beesley said there were good legal reasons why they could not be part of the same review.