A POOLE woman has told how she suffered 10 minutes of "abuse" at the hands of electoral canvassers sent to her home by the council.

Donna Blanche, 41, of Canford Heath, was visited by two men on November 17 who demanded she fill in an electoral register form.

But the single mum of three refused to discuss personal details on the doorstep with the strangers, who were not in uniform or displaying identity badges.

She claims one of the men then became "aggressive and intimidating."

She said: "They commented on my appearance - saying something like look at the state of you.' "It was awful. I was just so shocked - it was really intimidating."

She added: "They were there for about 10 minutes. It was really hard to get rid of them. One said - what are you stupid - you're going to get a £1,000 fine.' "A lot of people would have just done what they said."

Donna, a manager of a family centre, who served as an independent member on the Borough of Poole's Standards Committee for seven years, said the experience left her shocked and shaken.

"I'm pretty robust, but if this upset me - what could it do to somebody else?" she added.

Donna wrote a formal letter of complaint, and received a reply from the council informing her the men had been dismissed following an investigation.

"I am still bemused as to why the council would employ thugs' such as these," she added.

Paul Morris, registration services manager, said the council was required to personally canvass properties where the annual register of electors' form has not been received.

A team of electoral canvassers carried out these visits in October and November.

He added: "All people recruited for this exercise received full and proper training. In this case they received a flat rate of payment for delivering and collecting forms from properties where occupiers had failed to respond.

"Despite the training, it appears procedures were not fully followed in this instance, for which I apologise.

"This is unsatisfactory for such a high profile exercise and appropriate action has now been taken."