Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 5 March to Question 130265 on Local Government: Dorset, to what extent local consent changed among the (a) citizens of Christchurch and (b) their elected councillors between 7 November 2017 and 8 January 2018.

The issue of consent is a matter for each council, and as I set out in my answer to Question UIN 130265, since 7 November two councils have withdrawn their opposition to the proposal. This means that across the whole of Dorset nearly 80 per cent of councillors are now in favour of the proposal.

As to the level of support for the Dorset unitary proposal from the citizens and elected councillors of Christchurch, this has shown no evidence of significant change.

The representative household survey which formed part of the public consultation undertaken by all nine Dorset councils in 2016 showed that across the whole area 65 per cent of the public support the proposal and there was an absolute majority of respondents to the open consultation questionnaire in support of the proposal. The same open questionnaire also showed that 57 per cent of respondents in Christchurch opposed the proposal. In the local advisory poll that Christchurch undertook in November and December 2017, 84 per cent of a 54 per cent turnout opposed the proposal – equivalent to 45 per cent of the electorate.

In Christchurch, in January 2017 eight councillors supported the proposal, and in January 2018 eight councillors made representations in support of the proposal.