SIMON DREW of Foss Street, Dartmouth, writes:

In the paper recently there is an article declaring how the South Hams has the best beaches in the country. At the same time we receive glossy magazines produced by the South Hams Council telling us how wonderful they are at encouraging tourism.

If this council had diverted a little of the money they use for blowing their own trumpet into our wonderful beaches we might get even better beaches.

The Dartmouth castle Cove group spent over 10 years battling the South Hams Council who own the access to Castle Cove. We offered to rebuild the bridges that they had left to rot; this was with money totally raised by the group. There would be no cost to the council. We would retain money to maintain the bridges in the future.

The response of the South Hams Council was to commission several geological reports at huge cost and to wheel out a legal department to find more and more spanners to stick in the spokes. In the end, despite no costs to the council or effort for the rebuild, the council turned us down. Lets hope the council takes no credit for anything positive; they spend most of their time working out what they can't do.