REGARDING your recent reports of the Bournemouth council hotel development, I would like to make a couple of points.

Council tax payers expect their council to conduct the affairs of the town without undue risk bearing in mind that we pick up the pieces for any mistakes when they go wrong.

We do not expect our councils to act as hedge funds and go into expensive developments which may be judged high risk when, if they go wrong, the residents pay for any losses. In this instance the reward on the project seems very poor when set against the risks of development with a £70million-plus price tag.

On a wider note this highlights that local councillors have been threatened with the whip or expulsion from the local party if they do not vote for the project and raises questions regarding local democracy.

With the new super council being forced through any losses will be made up by the residents of Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch. Particularly galling for Christchurch residents being dragged in at the point of a gun as at the previous local elections no mention was made of a headlong leap into the super council.

Whatever your views of the benefits or otherwise of the super authority, what cannot be disputed is the people of Poole will pay proportionately more council tax to harmonise with the other towns involved and Christchurch is subject to a shotgun wedding.

One thing is for sure, it’s not democracy, more an old fashioned dictatorship.

J BIRD, Branksea Avenue, Hamworthy