Originally not forming a registered political party, CI was initially the joint-third largest alongside the Poole People and ALL group.

[7] In March 2019, councillors David Flagg, Paul Hilliard, Nick Geary, David Jones, Lesley Dedman and Margaret Phipps were suspended from the Conservative party, alongside the deputy president of the Christchurch Conservative association, Simon McCormack.

[10] Ultimately ten candidates stood for the BCP council election as part of the Christchurch Independents group,[11][12] also calling for taxes across the new district to be equal.

Due to these developments, alongside the departure of two Poole People councillors from both their party and one from the Unity Alliance (meaning that the Poole People and ALL group was still joint-third largest group alongside CI), a vote of no confidence in Vikki Slade was held in June 2020, which resulted in a tie of 37 votes each way alongside one abstention, with Council Chairman Cllr David Flagg casting the deciding vote against the motion, meaning that the Unity Alliance continued.

In a secret ballot, Mellor received 40 votes for leader, whilst Slade received 33 votes, with a single abstention, with Mellor duly elected leader of the council; Mellor appealed to the Christchurch Independents to join the administration with potential offers of cabinet position, but the offer was rejected, with a statement reading "We stood on a platform in the elections last year that the Tories cannot be trusted to protect Christchurch and we won eight of the ten seats".

[24][25][26] The statement also reiterated the group's plans to contest the eventual by-election for Colin Bungey's Commons ward seat, with Vanessa Ricketts as the prospective candidate.

[33] Lesley Dedman and Paul Hilliard were elected to the Friars Cliff Ward of the Town Council.