A FORMER councillor has called on the new BCP Council to consider the health implications of every decision it makes.

David d’Orton-Gibson asked members of its health scrutiny committee to continue the initiative launched under the now-abolished Bournemouth council.

The ex-chairman of the same committee for the former council, said the impacts of all decisions on the public needed to be considered.

“When you don’t have your health most other things don’t matter,” he said at the meeting of the committee on Monday.

“We have lovely beaches – no good if your health won’t let you get down there. We encourage employment – of no use if you are not well to get to work and I could go on.

“It was this experience that led me to launch Bournemouth Health at the Heart.

“What I was pushing for was that in every decision the council makes we should consider the health implications.”

As a councillor he led the introduction of the scheme in Bournemouth council in 2013, following a move which saw local authorities take over public health responsibilities.

He called on the new authority to adopt it as well.