FOUR years after being created there are still not enough seats for all 76 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole councillors to meet together within a council building.

The lack of a suitable space also means that even if the public wanted to attend full council meetings at the Bournemouth town hall only a few would be able to see and hear what is happening – and some with disabilities would be unlikely to get in.

BCP councillor George Farquhar says the situation is a disgrace – accusing the Conservative administration of lacking the will to solve the problems.

He said that excuses that the building is listed will not wash, claiming that disability discrimination laws allows for adaptations.

“Since our very first meeting (in 2019) I identified that accessing that chamber would be an issue…the world has moved on, but we haven’t…why have we not been pressing the Government for a dispensation to make it an accessible chamber?” he told a scrutiny committee on Monday evening.

“We say we’re putting people first – but we’re not demonstrating that,” he said.

Cllr Marcus Andrews said the only work he was aware of was fitting cables to allow councillors to use their laptops and cameras to be able to stream meetings online, with all but those in the front row of the public gallery still unable to view meetings.

Cllr Lawrence Williams described the public facilities as “uncomfortable, not what they should be.”

Cllr Steve Bartlett questioned whether the council had a project plan for the work: “It’s quite astounding that we don’t seem to know what is going on,” he said.

Council chief executive Graham Farrant told a scrutiny meeting that it is likely that if the new council, to be elected in May, wants to meet together the only way to do it would be to bring in temporary chairs to the Bournemouth council chamber – or meet elsewhere, probably in a university lecture theatre.

There was also criticism at the meeting at the slow pace of other changes.

Cllr Vikki Slade claimed that councillors were being kept in the dark, unaware of what transformation proposals were underway.

She said that in August 2021 it had been decided to set up a cross-party working group on transformation, with promises of full consultation – but the group had yet to meet.

“Eighteen months down the line it’s worse that unacceptable – we’ve literally been kept like mushrooms. It’s not right,” she said.

Cllr Anne Filer said more than three years since the council was formed people were still telling her of difficulties in reporting issues to the authority.

Cllr Lewis Allison said that while the report detailed ‘supporting colleagues’ and said that transformation was working well, the impression he got from talking to officers at all levels was not that.

“People don’t feel comfortable about bringing forward their feelings about the environment they are working in. A lot of staff have found the transformation process quite negative and quite a difficult situation to go through…officers tell me about a culture which is quite scary really and they are not comfortable in speaking up if they are not happy about their work environment, their workload and expectations,” he said.

The claims came during discussions about new IT systems being introduced at the authority which, it is claimed, will allow the council to better link services together and take the next stage in transforming services, bringing financial efficiencies.

The overview and scrutiny meeting heard that amongst other things it should bring to an end the saga of people calling the council having to repeat their stories several times and quicker action to deal with problems like fly tipping and pot holes.

Council leader Cllr Drew Mellor said that £47.9 million had already been saved through transformation projects as a result of bringing the three former councils together, with more savings yet to come, estimated, at best by accountant KPMG, at another £43.9million over the five year medium term financial plan.