VAL GIBBONS of Seymour Drive, Dartmouth, writes:

We share Adam Tucker's admiration of Halwell's roadside, artistic wall, last week's Chronicle.

However, in our appreciation of its aesthetic value, we invariably comment on the fact that a metal barrier would have been considerably cheaper and quicker to install: similar to that on the Newton Abbot road out of Totnes.

Now, I have no intention of testing this theory, but I imagine that the jagged stone would damage a vehicle's bodywork far more than would a low barrier, and would also be less forgiving in its reboundability. There's probably a technical term for that.

The cost of that wall, which obviously includes the men's wages for all those weeks, causes me annoyance.

Devon County Council's highways department insist that they cannot afford to drop the kerb by Dartmouth Tourist Office.

Although wheelchair users can read 'keep clear' painted on the road as they leave the town's only official car park en-route to the Flavel, Foss Street, the market or post office, they are unable to access the road at that point.

They must cross Mayor's Avenue opposite Duke Street's busy junction, or venture as far as Marks and Spencer – but what an inconvenience.

Duke Street is totally inappropriate for wheelchair use, being dangerous for both the disabled and for those pedestrians, kindly but unthinking, who jump onto the road in a bid to be helpful; ask any bus driver.

Back to the wall? There can be no backs to the wall if the county council can waste our money so frivolously when it suits them.