I was very surprised to learn from the Daily Echo (Tuesday, November 15) that Tobias Ellwood MP is apparently not aware of the remarkable progress made by Bournemouth Council since 2007 in saving money for Bournemouth residents through efficiency and joint services with other councils and public bodies.

One of the many ways forward for the more efficient provision of the services that residents look to the council to provide is by joint arrangements so that overheads can be absorbed without repeating them between different councils and this is something that we are doing more of every day.

There’s nothing new in this and in part it accounts for the £32 million we have saved for Bournemouth Council since 2007 when we took office.

But of course we are doing much more than just making services more efficient. Longer term all councils are going to have to change and transform the way in which services are delivered and that is the enormous task that Bournemouth Council is dealing with through its partnership with Mouchel.

This transformation will deliver even greater efficiencies and will depend on the creation of a hub to deliver services for other councils and public bodies, creating investment and jobs.

But it doesn’t stop there as we are determined not to reduce our services for residents during these difficult times, but rather to improve them and save money at the same time.

Of course, if Mr Ellwood is proposing more than the merger of individual services, then the equivalent of a local government reorganisation through the merger of Officer teams is another matter and one about which I am sure many residents will have strong views.

It would be interesting to hear about the cost of such a proposal and perhaps as far as local council tax payers are concerned, who will be footing the bill.

We’ve been here before in the past and the last thing we all need is anything that will effectively knock us off course when we are achieving so much for the stability of services for Bournemouths' residents for the long term.

Please Mr Ellwood, come and talk to the council and find out what we are doing, as I suspect you will be surprised by what we have achieved since 2007 and you may wonder why your colleagues at Westminster have not been managing the same in government nationally.

Cllr John Beesley, Deputy Leader, Bournemouth Council