SIR — Having perused the publication ‘Proposed New Council’, it is obvious that the extent of public participation is restricted to a back page questionnaire requiring a Yes or No response only.

For such a momentous and irreversible change of authority, this is a puerile attempt to engage the electorate in what is, in effect, a decision already made.

Question 3 asks: “Do you have a suggestion for the new of the new council?” That alone suggests it is already a fair accompli.

A public meeting, or preferably meetings, should have been arranged to enable people to air their views, not ludicrous “call in” centres as those here in Minehead, one in the vestibule of the Beach Hotel and another in a tea shop!

What arrogance on the part of both authorities to treat voters in such a cavalier manner.

Taunton Deane as the largest authority will be at liberty to off-load any unpalatable business on to West Somerset, already terminally weakened financially by having sold all our many assets to finance numerous hare-brained schemes destined to fail.

We could be faced with having to accommodate housing demands, resulting in further diminishing our lovely countryside.

This is not a democracy, it is a dictatorship.

Thelma Frost,

Brook Street Mews,

Alcombe.