BCP Council's controversial FuturePlaces to be investigated

Cross party calls urged for a further look into the regeneration company, which was set up by former council leaders Drew Mellor, Phil Broadhead and BCP chief executive Graham Farrant in 2021. 

Christchurch Independent councillor Margaret Phipps told an audit and governance committee meeting that it is “amazing” £46.93million was spent on transformation but questioned “what have we got for it?”. 

Conservative councillor John Beesley said if the scope of the investigation into FuturePlaces was “as wide as I think it would need to be to be totally transparent”, witnesses would need to be called along with a look of internal emails. 

Margaret Phipps

He added that it is “no good at just being statements that are uncorroborated by officers and others" and that he is “very keen indeed” for an investigation. 

Labour’s Eleanor Connolly, vice chair of the committee, said FuturePlaces is brought up by residents as an example of the council “not wanting to get to the bottom of things that have happened”. 

Chief executive of BCP Council Graham Farrant said councillors on the committee should meet and discuss what to investigate in an “informal session rather than a public meeting”. 

He added: “We can then talk to you about what’s been done and then you can decide which areas you can look at, if any in particular.” 

Mr Farrant referred to the best value notice which resulted in a 44-point plan that was carried out and last summer the government wrote off the notice. 

Cllr Phipps disagreed with this, saying this should be done in the public domain “not just something we talk about between ourselves”. 

Chief executive Graham Farrant (Image: Richard Crease)

The subject independent audit report highlighted a “significant weakness” in BCP Council’s decision-making for FuturePlaces’ arrangement to “secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness”. 

Chief finance officer Adam Richens said the report being discussed by the committee (from 2022/23) is out of date compared to the most recent one which showed improvements were made. 

He told councillors: “Hopefully that gives you reassurance on the journey that has happened since the 2022/23 accounts, that we are almost catching up, because those accounts were never audited.” 

The meeting heard several times that BCP Council's governance has since had reports highlighting improvements from within.

The majority of councillors voted in favour of an investigation, and it will now be put on a forward plan to look into in the future. No timescale was given.

What happened with FuturePlaces?

FUTUREPLACES was set up in 2021 by BCP Council as a way of delivering more homes and jobs on sites owned by the council.  

It was closed down by the current Three Towns Alliance administration earlier this year as part of major cost-cutting measures.

A total of £5.3million was spent by BCP Council setting up and closing down FuturePlaces across the three years.

And its directors and employees were also given £110,476 in bonuses during its short lifetime. 

More than £80,000 was also paid to rent out offices in Exeter Park Road, Bournemouth while free office space was available at the town hall.

There was controversy in September 2023 when claims were made that the rented offices were connected to former council leader and ex-director of Drew Mellor.

However, Mr Mellor denied owning the Bourne Park building in Exeter Road.