ELECTIONS to appoint councillors to the new Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council next year are expected to cost £650,000.

Following local government reorganisation in the county, the conurbation will see its number of councillors almost halved to 76 – requiring elections at the beginning of May.

A request has been made for the soon-to-be-abolished councils to contribute almost £8m towards the transitional organisation – the shadow authority – to cover its running costs, which includes two-thirds of the estimated  budget requirement of the May polls.

Bournemouth and Poole councils have funded elections in recent years by drawing the money directly from reserves.

However, the shadow authority’s interim chief finance officer, Adam Richens, said that continuing the practise was “not sustainable” and that the new council would look to set aside some funding each year for election costs.

With no funding yet set aside for May’s conurbation-wide elections, £470,000 has been requested from the existing councils with the remainder due do be budgeted for the 2019/20 financial year.

Mr Richens said that the cost of the elections was estimated to be £650,000.

"The way things have been done in Bournemouth and Poole is not sustainable," he said. "What we think is more sensible is for a portion of the costs to be allocated each year so that it is spread out."

The number of councillors on the new unitary authority will be significantly lower than across the three existing councils with the number cut from 125 to 76.

The new council will be split into 35 wards – with most represented by two councillors although six will have three members – covering about 2,000 people per member.

It is expected to have a large Conservative majority, due to the existing make-up of the three councils.

The issue has sparked concern among representatives of other groups and also from a number of Christchurch Tories who have been considering standing as independents in protest at the government's decision to throw out its legal challenge against the merger.

All of the existing councillors of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole councils will remain in place until four days after the election “for the purposes of provision continuity”.