THE “risks of bankruptcy” facing the Borough of Poole according to the council leader, which seem to be getting great publicity in the Echo in recent weeks, show how ever more she is becoming divorced from reality Even allowing for a £2million annual increase in the costs of adult social services and bizarrely assuming no council tax rise or rise in other income, the borough has produced figures that show the council needs only to make just over four per cent annual savings from its £149m annual budget in order to balance the books for the next three years How this can equate to an organisation with over £24m of revenue reserves being on the “edge of bankruptcy” is beyond me – how about merging more back office functions with our neighbours, combining service units such as planning and transportation, the thorough scrutinising of every piece of expenditure, seriously reviewing the numbers of management employees and asking every employee and every council tax payer in Poole to suggest areas in which savings can be made?

All of these things should be done before we start pleading poverty and thus encouraging the government (as she did in her budget speech in February) to treat us as unsustainable and forcing us into a merger with one of our larger neighbours which I am convinced the majority of the residents of Poole would be thoroughly against.

The more the leader bleats about the alleged parlous state of Poole’s finances the more she brings closer an outcome very few would desire or welcome.

CLLR PHILIP EADES, Branksome West Ward