A DEAL between council bosses and New Zealand firm ASR over the Boscombe surf reef is in danger of collapse, says the borough’s Conservative leader.

In a stinging email, Councillor Peter Charon has blasted two fellow councillors for ‘political opportunism’ after they forced a review of a cabi net decision made on December 15.

The ‘call-in’ move, spear headed by Liberal Democrat Councillor Roger West, effectively means the cabinet agree ment asking ASR to come back and try to fix the reef has been suspended for the time being.

The agreement will now be looked at by the coun cil watchdog committee, the economy and tourism scrutiny panel.

But in the email to coun cil staff and other council lors, Cllr Charon said: “The call-in has a real pos sibility of creating an atmosphere in which the agreed position could now collapse.”

He added: “Not for the first time, Cllr West has sought to force an issue which then has a direct bearing on our reputation and tourist industry.”

He said the call-in was not warranted and that the cabinet had been in possession of every possi ble fact when making the December 15 decision.

Councillors agreed to get ASR back for a £55,000 up- front payment, with another £95,000 if they could sort it out.

At the time, Cllr Charon called it a pragmatic deci sion and said the council could not wash its hands of the problem and walk away.

Cllr West said: “I can understand why the Leader is so prickly on the subject of the reef as he had boasted that he had secured a good perfor mance-related contract with ASR.

“Does he still believe this to be the case?

“Safety is an important issue and we were shocked there was no ref erence to it in the cabinet report.

“There are several con struction flaws in the reef and it is not clear that the ‘refinement plan’ will address them.

“We want this problem solved in the interest of Bournemouth’s economy and tourism.”