When I was a member of Trowbridge Town Council in 2006, I can remember calling the plans to take-over and refurbish the former Trowbridge Town Hall as a “vain glorious folly” pursued by the majority of my fellow councillors in the face of strong resistance from the residents of the town.

Interestingly, the solution I proposed then for paying for the Town Hall (and the one that is now being suggested to fund the Civic Hall renovation – that we raise a commercial loan), was dismissed out-of-hand.

Instead, the town clerk and the councillors leading the project were confident that they would get the funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

To support this not-so-well-thought-out scheme, we all had our council precept doubled for a year.

When the Heritage Lottery Fund bid failed, as it was always going to do, the council arrogantly held onto our money.

The Town Hall Folly, and in my eyes the poor judgment of my colleagues on the council, was one of the reasons I decided to stand down from the Town Council in 2007.

Now, like a recurring nightmare, the whole sorry episode seems to be coming back to life again.

I’m with Cllr Glyn Bridges on this one: I find it incredible that the same group of people that demonstrably failed to deliver the Town Hall project are gaily embarking on another, leaving us, the taxpayers, once again, to foot the bill for their misplaced civic pride.

Let’s vote them all out at the first opportunity and replace them with some councillors that really know what they’re doing.

Malcolm Rosier, Former Town and District Councillor, Wingfield Road, Trowbridge.