THE Mayor of Bournemouth says he is “annoyed” with some Christchurch councillors for not presenting residents with "all the facts" about what a conurbation ‘super unitary’ would entail.

Cllr Eddie Coope, who is the only councillor to have been mayor of both towns, disputes the idea of a Bournemouth ‘takeover’, should the town merge with Christchurch and Poole.

Speaking to the Daily Echo, he said the three towns had already been working together in several ways over the last few years.

“I’m a bit annoyed that a lot of my Christchurch colleagues haven’t put out all the facts about this. Bournemouth, Poole, and Christchurch are connected in a number of ways – Tricuro is working well, Christchurch’s works and highways department has left Grange Road and now operates from our depot in Bournemouth, and we supply Christchurch with all their plants from the Bournemouth nursery. It’s been working for the last three or four years, but the general public don’t seem to know that, and I feel it should be put out in the wider domain.”

Last month, it was reported that councillors in Christchurch were being urged to support the setting up of a town council to save the ancient borough’s mayoralty, which dates back 700 years.

Cllr Coope said if a merger went ahead, the town would not lose its mayor, and claims to the contrary were “scaremongering”.

“It was debated at a meeting on Monday, and it was reassured that each town would retain its mayor, although maybe not in the present form.

“All along we have said ‘you will not lose your mayor’, and I do get annoyed by several Christchurch councillors, and others, saying that will happen – it’s a bit of a red herring and scaremongering, as far as I’m concerned because they’ve got the assent of the Royal Charter.”

He also refuted concerns Bournemouth would dominate the new merger.

“We don’t know that everything is going to be run from Bournemouth at this stage. As mentioned on Monday night, Christchurch will still be Christchurch, and Poole will still be Poole.

“I’m not saying a Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch unitary authority is the obvious option, I’m neutral about that, but we have a lot in common, and financially it would seem the logical thing to do.”