ON May 5, 2015, those who voted Conservative in Poole, possibly on the back of voting that way in the general election the same day, would have had no idea that they were voting to abolish the local council (1248-2019).

I'm not sure many would have even been aware of the further toilet closures and the scrapping of area committees, though those were at least being hinted at.

Aided and abetted by the government elected on the same day, there was little hint that Poole would be losing their local accident and emergency department, or the ability to have a baby in Poole.

I was told that one councillor at a debate about the merger a couple of years back, stated that "It's funny that those who are against the merger are all Remoaners", which was factually not right anyway, but leads to another analogy.

The abolition of Poole is a bit like the UK joining the EU (whatever it was called at the time) in 1973, abolishing its national government, and becoming a "department" of France. What's scary about that analogy is what might happen when a weak UK goes cap in hand to Trump’s USA for a trade deal – but that's another letter for another day.

My last conversation with former Conservative council leader, the late Brian Leverett, just a few days before his untimely demise, was about the then background media talk of a merger. Brian's words still haunt me, so I won't repeat them here, but here was someone who I may have disagreed with on several points, but actually cared about the town he led.

Those who have been governing the town since 2015 only seem to care about fattening the calf for slaughter, and creating a Tory city by the sea, and have woefully neglected the town that voted them into power. Even worse is that unlike practically every town in Dorset, Poole won't even have a "town council", so no backstop even.

They might well be the worst Poole council ever. 771 years of Poole history ends on April 1, 2019 – well within the term the current lot were elected for. Those of us who have lost the battle for Poole will have to do what the current Conservative councillors failed to do, fight to hold on to the facilities we have in Poole, and maybe restore some of the old civic pride we used to have, whilst those who might end up elected, will have to try to make a better future within a soulless conglomerate set up to flatter Tory egos.

May 5, 2015 has proven to be a bad day in so many ways – just look where we've got to!

TONY TRENT, former Lib Dem Councillor, Fraser Road, Poole