My recently published letter regarding the council merger occasioned a lot of comment (including an erroneous one concerning my previous employment) and a response published on Wednesday headed ‘Will we end up with poor quality services if councils merge’?

The answer to this is simple – if they don’t merge we’ll end up with no services at all because councils will be bankrupt. That’s a fact. It isn’t scaremongering or support for any particular political party.

Government subsidies amounting to millions of pounds are about to be withdrawn – whether or not you agree with this as a policy, it’s about to happen. The only way to make sufficient savings to make up for this is by a merger – if things stay as they are then councils simply will not have enough money to continue. Why is this so hard to understand or accept?

Times change and we need to change with them. In an ideal world things might stay as they are but unfortunately we don’t live in an ideal world and we need to adapt as circumstances dictate.

The councils involved are, quite rightly, going out to consultation on this so instead of burying our heads in the sand we need to concentrate on responding so that the new ‘super council’ can be formed.
NANCY CURTIS Sea Road, Boscombe