WHATEVER some Poole councillors may think of Cllr Dion’s classic Twin Sails comment, it seems very clear that public opinion is strongly on the councillor’s side for speaking the truth.

On the Echo website on Wednesday May 1, nearly every one of 36 comments strongly supported the councillor. And similarly Thursday, 21 comments, nearly all in support.

Surely the whole point here is that, as Cllr Dion said in her iconic phrasing, there is an important critical principle at stake: It is the contractors that delivered the bridge.

The council is the customer. It is the contractors that must deliver a functioning bridge. But the fact is sections of the road surface parted from the bridge when it was first put into operation.

And since then it has become clear there are serious faults with the lifting hydraulics. The bridge has been out of operation 36 times in the first six months. For any councillor to now call for the resignation of the current portfolio holder is then surely entirely missing the point.

The bridge has been inherited from decisions going back to the late 1990s, finalised in 2009. It is management from these periods, not the current portfolio holder, that surely needs to be taken to task with the key question: Why did council sign contracts that have led to acceptance of the bridge before it was thoroughly proven to be fit for purpose?

JEFF WILLIAMS, Jubilee Road, Parkstone