Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, which styles itself BCP Council, is the local authority for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. The council is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council. It is independent from Dorset Council, the unitary authority which administers the rest of the county. The district was created on 1 April 2019 by the merger of the areas that were previously administered by the unitary authorities of Bournemouth and Poole, and the non-metropolitan district of Christchurch.
The council has been under no overall control since 2022. Since the 2023 election it has been run by a coalition of the Liberal Democrats, Christchurch Independents, Poole People Party and some of the independent councillors, led by Liberal Democrat councillor Vikki Slade, until her resignation after being elected as MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole at the 2024 United Kingdom general election in July 2024. She was succeeded by Deputy Leader and fellow Liberal Democrat councillor Millie Earl on 23 July 2024. The council is based at the Civic Centre in Bournemouth.
History
The district of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and its council were created on 1 April 2019, covering the combined area of the three former boroughs of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, which were all abolished at the same time. Bournemouth and Poole had both been unitary authorities since 1997, whilst Christchurch was a lower tier district council, with Dorset County Council providing county-level services in that borough. The way the changes were implemented was to create a new non-metropolitan district and a non-metropolitan county both called Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, each covering the area of the three former boroughs. There is no separate county council; instead the district council also performs county council functions, making it a unitary authority. The district remains part of the ceremonial county of Dorset for the purposes of lieutenancy.A shadow authority was established in May 2018 to oversee the transition, comprising the 120 councillors from the three borough councils plus the five county councillors who represented Christchurch. The shadow authority met in lecture theatres at Bournemouth University, as no council venue was sufficiently large to host all 125 members. Janet Walton, the Conservative leader of Poole Borough Council, was appointed leader of the shadow authority, and John Beesley, the Conservative leader of Bournemouth Borough Council, was appointed as the shadow authority's deputy leader. Ray Nottage, a Conservative former leader of Christchurch Borough Council, was appointed to the more ceremonial position of chair of the shadow authority.
The new district and council formally came into being on 1 April 2019, at which point the old councils were abolished. The shadow authority continued to run the council until the inaugural election in May 2019.
Governance
As a unitary authority, the council provides both district-level and county-level services. There are five civil parishes in the district, which form an additional tier of local government for their areas. The former borough of Poole and most of the former borough of Bournemouth are unparished.Bournemouth and Poole each have charter trustees; the Bournemouth trustees being the district councillors representing wards in the former borough of Bournemouth, and the Poole trustees likewise being the district councillors representing wards in the former borough of Poole. The trustees preserve each town's civic charters and traditions, including appointing one of their number each year to serve as mayor for each town.
Political control
Political control of the council since its formation in 2019 has been as follows:Leadership
The shadow authority was led by Janet Walton, Conservative leader of the outgoing Poole Borough Council. She failed to secure a seat on the new council at the first election in May 2019. The leaders of the council since 2019 have been:Composition
Following the 2023 election and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to May 2025, the composition of the council was:Two of the five independents sit together as the 'Independents Group', the other three do not belong to a group. As no one party controlled a majority of the council the Liberal Democrats, Christchurch Independents, Poole People Party and the Independent Group formed a coalition administration known as the "Three Towns Alliance."
On October 2025 Cllr Cameron Adams and Cllr Duane Farr defected from the Conservative Party to join Reform UK
The next election is due in 2027.
Premises
The council is based at the Civic Centre on Bourne Avenue in Bournemouth. The older part of the building was completed in 1885 as the Mont Dore Hotel. It was acquired by Bournemouth Borough Council and converted into Bournemouth Town Hall in 1921, with several extensions and annexes being added since then.When BCP Council was created in 2019, it inherited various municipal buildings from its three predecessors, notably including their three headquarters buildings: Bournemouth Town Hall, the Civic Offices on Bridge Street in Christchurch, completed in 1980, and Poole Civic Centre, on Parkstone Road in Poole, completed in 1932. The council decided to refurbish Bournemouth Town Hall to become its main headquarters, renaming it the Civic Centre, and to sell the other two buildings.
Political history and controversies
The Conservatives had held a majority of the seats on the shadow authority, but the result of the first election left the council under no overall control. The Conservatives were the largest party, but a coalition of all groups other than the Conservatives and UKIP formed a 'Unity Alliance' administration, with Vikki Slade appointed leader of the council.After two changes of allegiance in October 2019, and the death of Christchurch Independents councillor Colin Bungey in April 2020, the Unity Alliance was left one seat short of a majority. Whereas a by-election would normally have been held to fill the vacant seat, this was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Conservative group leader, Drew Mellor, moved a vote of no confidence, which was held on 9 June 2020. The 36 Conservatives and one independent voted for the motion and all 37 Unity Alliance councillors voted against; the single UKIP councillor abstained. The vote was thus tied 37-37, and the chairman of the council, David Flagg, used his casting vote to defeat the motion, dedicating it to the memory of the late Colin Bungey.
In the three months after that confidence vote, Liberal Democrat councillor Pete Parish died in July 2020, and independent councillor Julie Bagwell left the Unity Alliance. A second vote of no confidence was tabled by Mellor for 15 September 2020, which this time was carried, with 39 votes in support and 33 against, ending Vikki Slade's tenure as leader. Mellor was appointed the new leader of the council at a subsequent meeting on 1 October 2020. The Christchurch Independents group rejected Mellor's overtures to become part of the new administration, so the Conservatives formed a minority administration.
In September 2021, four councillors from various groups joined the Conservatives, giving the party a majority on the council for the first time.
The Conservatives lost their majority in June 2022 when four of their councillors left the party to form the Poole Local Group with independent councillor Julie Bagwell.