NO DECISION has been made on whether any council assets will be sold following the completion of April’s merger of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole authorities.

The draft budget being considered by councillors includes no assumptions over the sale of any council assets, despite one of the main aims of the merger being to consolidate resources.

The new council’s draft £112 million capital budget makes no provision for it selling any of its facilities in either 2020/21 or 2021/22.

Speaking at Thursday’s meeting of the shadow authority’s scrutiny committee, the council’s interim chief financial officer Adam Richens said that they had not wanted to make any decisions on the arrangements for the councils’ physical assets before the new authority comes into being in April.