THE Borough of Poole, at Tuesday’s Full Council meeting, voted overwhelmingly in favour of signing up to Combined Economic Development Authority for Dorset, the aims of which I wholeheartedly support.

However, Poole is to contribute 20 per cent of the funds for 11 per cent of the votes on this new authority.

Bournemouth, extraordinarily, fares even worse and will contribute 25 per cent of the budget for 11 per cent of the votes.

Surely the Combined Economic Development Authority should be constituted along the lines of the Dorset Fire Authority which has 15 members – eight from the county council boundary, four from Bournemouth and three from Poole?

Otherwise, we could be in the position of the rural authorities voting through economic development proposals that concentrate mainly, for example, on agriculture to the exclusion of the conurbation’s role as the economic powerhouse of Dorset .

Poole’s leader assured us in her speech that “the concerns of economic development are the same across the whole county”.

However, North and West Dorset are primarily agrarian economies and Purbeck is dominated by tourism.

This statement ignores the conurbation’s leading roles in manufacturing, high tech, marine, aviation, financial services and the new digital economy.

The conurbation must be well and fairly represented on any combined authority.

Cllr Philip Eades

Borough of Poole