Poole MP Sir Robert Syms said ministers had sent a “warning shot” to BCP Council.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities issued a best value notice to the local authority following an external assurance review.

In a letter to BCP Council chief executive Graham Farrant, the notice highlighted areas of specific concern and gave a list of improvements that needed to be made.

Poole MP Sir Robert told the Daily Echo: “It doesn’t come as a surprise. There are a number of things that have happened.

“The councils reorganisation was probably at the wrong time because we had Covid and a number of other issues following afterwards that made it very difficult to recast a new authority but I don’t think my constituents were pleased either with the merger or indeed with the performance of what they have had since.”

Sir Robert said he agreed with the assessment of Conservative colleague and Bournemouth West MP Sir Conor Burns in that there needed to be a “big improvement” at the town hall.

“We can’t revert what happened but certainly I think hopefully the next few years will be more peaceful and the council will gel together and start to deliver much better services for local constituents,” Sir Robert said.

“I think what has come from the levelling-up department is sort of like a warning shot, but I think we all know that things haven’t been working since the reorganisation and I think we are all hopeful for better times ahead and quieter times ahead.”

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood told the Daily Echo: "The ‘best value notice’ reflects the tough financial conditions the council has faced and it is a clarion call for the council to be more strategic in offering a long-term plan in order to navigate forwards into a more prosperous economic chapter.

“Cutting events such as the air show, for example, will save cash in the short term but will damage Bournemouth’s – and by extension the council’s – finances in the long term, promoting further Government notices such as this.”

On the reference to Bournemouth Air Festival, BCP Council's cabinet had an agenda item listed on its forward plan for its meeting last month titled 'Future Options - Bournemouth Air Festival’.

A summary of the forthcoming decision published on the local authority’s website said: “To make a decision on the future of Bournemouth Air Festival beyond 2023.”

However, the item was not discussed at the meeting.

The Three Towns Alliance administration announced on July 19 that a decision on the future funding of the Bournemouth Air Festival would likely take palce in autumn.

A working group with businesses is being created to explore options for the event.

The local authority said “significant financial pressures” mean council leaders needed to find “new ways of sustainability financing” the free festival.

This year's event, which takes place between Thursday, August 31, and Sunday, September 3, is not affected by these discussions.