CHRISTCHURCH will not have its say in the election of a new joint council leader, it has been claimed.

The Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Joint Committee meets next week to discuss electoral arrangements for the year-long ‘shadow authority’ which will be set up prior to the formation of a new unitary council for the conurbation, if the super council plans are approved by the Government.

A five-member task and finish group set up to examine the issue has recommended that the shadow council’s leader be chosen by and from among its executive committee, to be made up of eight Bournemouth councillors, six Poole councillors and two Christchurch councillors.

Christchurch council leader and task and finish group member Cllr David Flagg had proposed that the full shadow authority, consisting of all the conurbation’s current councillors, take the vote, however this was overruled by other four members.

“The group has two members from Bournemouth and Poole and one from Christchurch, we haven’t got a voice,” he said.

Cllr Flagg said despite the fact there would be a smaller number of councillors from his borough even on the full shadow authority, he wanted suffrage for the leader’s election expanded to ensure “openness and transparency” and to allow more members to have their say. "As far as I’m concerned Christchurch will never have a voice in this new authority, we are too small, it is as simple as that, which is one of the reasons we don’t want to go into the new authority.”

Unlike the leaders of normal councils the shadow authority’s leader will not be a political post but will fulfill the role of chairman, in post for around one year, and the committee may consider renaming the post to avoid confusion.

Poole councillor Drew Mellow, chairman of the task and finish group, said: "We have recognised the shadow authority’s leader’s role as more akin to that of a committee chair and as such we agreed by majority that the position be elected by the shadow executive, as the position serves primarily as chair of that body.

"With our recommendation, any one of the sixteen shadow executive members, from any one of the three existing councils of Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch, would be possible for this role.

"These sixteen shadow executive members would already have been nominated by their respective councils to be part of the shadow executive, so all members would have had an opportunity to influence the membership of the shadow executive, and so the members to be considered for the leader role.

"The leadership of each individual existing council up until April 2019 would be unaffected, and the decision-making in relation to business as usual for these councils would continue to operate as per the current models until the new council exists, with three council leaders.”