SENIOR council officers at Christchurch and East Dorset have been split into two teams to avoid any potential conflict of interest over the legal action on merger proposals.

As the Daily Echo reported yesterday, lawyers for Christchurch Council have sent a ‘letter before action’ to the government claiming ministers do not have the legal authority to force it to merge with Bournemouth and Poole.

The lawyers say they will seek a judicial review over the issue unless regulations set to go before Parliament are withdrawn.

Although any legal proceedings will be directed at the new Communities Secretary, James Brokenshire, the eight Dorset councils (including East Dorset) that have given consent to their own abolition and the setting up of just two unitary authorities are legally considered ‘interested parties.’

This poses a problem at Christchurch and East Dorset. The two councils are politically sovereign and are on opposite sides of the fence on merger but they share the same senior officer team including chief executive, David McIntosh (pictured) who splits his time between the two authorities.

While Christchurch has refused to join up with Bournemouth and Poole, East Dorset voted earlier in the year to go in with a rural unitary based on the current Dorset County Council boundary. Now the Christchurch and East Dorset officers have been split up and will work separately on the legal issues. Mr McIntosh and finance head Ian Milner will look after Christchurch while Dave Barnes and Matti Raudsepp will handle East Dorset.

In a statement to the Echo yesterday, Mr McIntosh said:“It is important for both Christchurch and East Dorset councils to be confident that they can be properly advised given the situation. To ensure this we have allocated different senior staff to support each of the councils specifically on the matter of the legal proceedings. The team aready have considerable experience over a number of years of providing advice in line with the varying policies of both authoritiesI have given my personal assurance to the other Dorset councils that confidential information will not be shared between Christchurch and East Dorset.”