I KNOW we seem to be living in a parallel universe where anything can happen, but only last week a group of Poole residents were talking about taking Poole council to court over a decision to introduce new on-street parking charges.

I’m not sure on what basis they could build a court case, but they’re doing this while ignoring a far bigger threat to local democracy in Poole.

By the end of this month, Borough of Poole might well have surrendered the town to a new, and considerably more remote, ‘Super Council’. Poole will be a tasty prize.

It still has the lowest council tax in Dorset and is the closest of the three upper tier councils in Dorset to managing the loss of government subsidy. With the equalisation of tax levels (upwards for Poole), and the prime land a new “city” authority would inherit, Poole would be a good catch.

For the residents of Poole, these changes would mean much higher council tax bills, the loss of influence of local people and their elected representatives over what happens in their neighbourhood, and an end to almost 900 years of history.

Many services and strategies in the area are already shared with neighbouring councils, so what are the gains? Personally I think the gains are all for the Conservative Party. They get their first ever “safe” city council, and I’m sure the top bods will vote themselves a huge increase in allowances for taking on extra responsibility.

The last conversation I ever had with former Tory council leader, the late Brian Leverett, was about the possibility of something like this happening. He left me in no doubt what he thought about such an idea.

His successors by contrast have sold the town out bit by bit, bending to the will of their Bournemouth counterparts on more than one occasion. To date they seem to have about as much backbone as a “quivering jelly”, and they seem to be hoodwinking all and sundry along the way.

Consideration of the way forward starts this week. Poole residents need to wake up and stop sleepwalking towards a wholesale merger, and start lobbying their councillors.

Working together where appropriate, more efficiently, and cutting the number of councillors by a third – in line with their reduced workload since 2015 – can all be done within an independent Poole. It doesn’t need a ‘Super Council’. I thought people didn’t like power exercised from “ivory towers” - or was that only in the previous universe?

TONY TRENT (former Poole councillor for Alderney)

Fraser Road, Wallisdown