DILLY Bradley believes (tongue in cheek, perhaps ?) that a unitary council will take Somerset back to the proud days of Alfred the Great, when Somerset hosted Alfred's failed attempt to win the ninth century version of “The Great British Bake off”, disastrously burning his cakes ('Our county needs a strong voice in future', Postbag, January 23).

Having crossed swords with Dilly for many years in Taunton Deane's council chamber, I can certainly see her as Aethelflaed, Alfred's militant daughter, known as “The lady of the Mercians”.

At this point, I part company with Dilly's analogy.

I would cast David Fothergill, the Leader of Somerset County Council, not as a unifying Alfred the Great, but as Guthrum, the marauding Viking, plundering the well-run district councils of their reserves, while this 'Danegeld' is just swallowed up by the ever-growing costs of a failing county council.

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We must unite to resist this takeover. With cries of “Sumorsaeta Ealle!” - Somerset men (and women) together – we must drive off the invaders, working together to make our service delivery more efficient rather than suffering cut after cut from Viking swords.

Seriously, this proposal comes at the wrong time for the wrong reasons, from a position of weakness to bail out the county council's ongoing financial crisis.

It won't solve the problem and will just erode our local control of the rest of our services.

ALAN PAUL

Taunton