BCP Council has published 18 letters to ministers, MPs and officials since July 2024, and says its leader met two ministers in July. Updated November 2026.
BCP Council has published 18 letters and emails to ministers, MPs and officials to answer claims that it failed to press the government for money. It says it is “strongly refuting” those claims.
The council also says its leader, Cllr Millie Earl, met two ministers on the same day in July. Neither meeting appeared in a freedom of information response that prompted the row, because the council says their focus was broader than finance.
The release does not link to that response or say which questions it answered. The Bournemouth Echo has been reporting on it, and said on 2 November that the Conservative group had submitted a motion of no confidence in Cllr Earl.
We have not seen that motion. The next Full Council meeting is on 8 December, and its agenda is due in the week before. We will report the motion from the agenda.
What the council says
Cllr Mike Cox, the deputy leader and cabinet member for finance, said: “An FOI response does not always tell the whole story and is only ever in answer to a specific set of questions.”
He said the suggestion that lobbying is measured solely by ministerial meetings “is both misleading and ignores the extensive and diverse work” done over several years.
He also said: “It is in fact a failure of government that, despite our repeated requests, these meetings haven’t happened to the level our residents should expect.”
The two meetings the council now lists were both on 8 July 2026:
- Baroness Taylor, Lords minister for housing and local government, on the pace of devolution
- Steve Reed, then the secretary of state, where Cllr Earl raised local government finance
What the 18 letters show
We read the whole list. Here is how it breaks down, using the council’s own dates and descriptions:
- 11 went to ministers, including the Prime Minister on 28 September 2026
- 6 went to local MPs, including two replies about school crossing patrols
- 1 went to a senior civil servant, the council’s December 2025 request to raise council tax by an extra 2.43%
The council says five of the 18 formally asked for a meeting.
The pace has changed. The list has five items from 2024, six from 2025 and seven from 2026. Nothing is listed between 24 December 2025 and 5 June 2026, and six of this year’s seven date from 17 August onwards.
| Date | To | About |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Jul 2025 | Angela Rayner | SEND funding pressures, with a request for a meeting |
| 24 Dec 2025 | Tom Hayes MP | Asking him to escalate the council's SEND proposals |
| 5 Jun 2026 | Bridget Phillipson | Adult and children's care funding |
| 20 Aug 2026 | Angela Rayner and Lucy Powell | The £38m left over from the SEND deficit |
| 28 Sep 2026 | The Prime Minister | Funding, SEND and devolution |
| 13 Oct 2026 | Angela Rayner and Lucy Powell | Asking the government to pay the whole historic deficit |
The table shows six of the 18. The council’s release links to all of them. It publishes what the council sent, not the replies.
The figures inside the letters
The most recent letters carry numbers residents have not always seen together:
- £38m: what BCP would still owe after the government’s offer to fund up to 90% of its historic SEND deficit. The 13 October letter says the council “does not have the reserves” to meet it
- £15m: the real-terms fall in BCP’s core funds over the three years from 2026/27, on the council’s own analysis, in the letter to the Prime Minister
- £10.5m: the cost of borrowing to cover the deficit, in the same letter
The 13 October letter also warns of “a genuine risk” that BCP may need Exceptional Financial Support, the emergency permission to borrow for day-to-day costs.
Has the government replied?
Not on the main point, on the council’s latest account. Cabinet’s draft minutes for 28 October record that correspondence had been sent, “although no formal response had yet been received concerning the outstanding SEND liability”.
The same minutes confirm that a four-day working week “had never been under consideration” as a saving.
What it means for you
The argument is about who pays. BCP must set a balanced budget and council tax by 11 March 2027. Its gap for 2027/28 is £38.2m, a separate figure from the £38m SEND debt.
If the government does not move, the letters say the options are savings, selling assets or borrowing. They name libraries and community centres among the assets that matter to residents.
Your council tax band and what it costs now are on our council tax page.
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