THE councillor who provoked outrage by joining the Conservatives days after being elected as an independent is to face his critics at a residents’ meeting.

But Cllr Derek Borthwick has said he will hand out a letter about his actions rather than address the meeting on the issue.

Cllr Borthwick, who stood on the slogan “People before politics”, made overtures to Bournemouth council’s Tory group within 24 hours of the last election results being declared.

He is due to attend a meeting of his local area forum at Bournemouth School for Girls on Thursday June 2, 7pm, where the first item on the agenda is “Meet your ward councillors”.

Cllr Borthwick told the Daily Echo: “These meetings are not political meetings and they’re not courts of law.

“I’m going and will issue letters at that meeting.”

He has said he was “let down” by his two independent colleagues after Cllr Ron Whittaker endorsed Liberal Democrat candidates in Kinson North and Cllr Rey said she was a Lib Dem “at heart”.

Cllr Whittaker has said he was backing hard-working councillors in the area where he lives, rather than supporting a party, and Cllr Rey insisted she was referring to general elections.

Cllr Borthwick said: “I have in the past had a good record of getting things done as a councillor and I could not see myself sitting in the corner of the council chamber on my own having no group to work within.”

He added: “I’m not really interested in political issues and I only want to be in the right place to serve the residents of this town properly and correctly as they expect.”

He declined to say whether or not he would now be urging people to vote Conservative in local elections.

“It’s not for me to tell anyone how to vote,” he said. “That’s their decision. They should be voting for the best man.”

He said he intended to help keep council tax down and encourage a “more commercial way of thinking”.

“I shall be hot on their tails watching. I’m not a yes-man,” he told the Echo.

Around 3,000 leaflets are going out to residents urging them to demand that Cllr Borthwick resigns and stands as a Conservative in a by-election.

Independent group leader Cllr Anne Rey said she and Cllr Whittaker had received around 60 emails of support.