IT WAS surprising to see Local Government Minister Kemi Badenoch mentioned in two entirely different July 6 Echo stories.

Mind, as I write Kemi Badenoch has become the ex-Local Government Minister as she resigns from the Johnson government.

One of these two Echo stories reported BCP Council leader Cllr Mellor telling his cabinet colleagues that he was getting access to government ministers because of his trail-blazing financial schemes.

The second story described the worries of Sir Christopher Chope MP over one of those trail-blazing schemes which would raise council finance effectively by mortgaging off the beach huts.

In this second story Kemi Badenoch is quoted saying she was considering tightening the rules on such deals to make sure the freedoms are used in the spirit and intent with which they are provided.

So perhaps the ministerial access that Cllr Mellor finds so encouraging is actually the minister showing the same concern as Sir Christopher Chope.

The first of these Echo stories online did mention the £108 million savings over six years which the creation of two local supercouncils was ‘expected to save’.

As the need for today’s trail-blazing financial schemes tend to suggest, no such ‘expected’ savings have appeared in BCP council coffers.

At the time, the Tories were advised there would be no significant savings from their supercouncils, advice they chose to ignore. Are we again seeing a Tory-run council ignoring good advice?

DR MARTIN RODGER

Bloxworth Road, Parkstone