Julian Distin, of Ferndale, Dartmouth, writes:

Lighthouse beach landowner David Southwick last week repeated his claim that the whole beach is 'inundated' twice a day and argued that for this reason it would be unwise, perhaps even morally and legally wrong, for your readers to make contributions to Kingswear Parish Council's legal fund.

The claim that Lighthouse beach is entirely covered by water twice a day on every high tide has appeared in this newspaper with such regularity that there is now a danger that some of your readers may actually start to believe it.

I hope therefore that you will allow me to present an accurate picture of the effects of the tide at this location.

There are, broadly speaking, two high tides a day on the Dart and, undeniably, more of the beach is covered by water at high tide than at low tide.

On most days, however, the beach remains available for use throughout the twenty four hours. There is no access problem at all – other than that created by David Southwick – and there is plenty of dry beach to enjoy.

Only at high water on spring tides does the water approach or surround the foot of the Devon County Council steps or reduce the dry beach to an inconveniently narrow strip.

Spring tides occur every other week and the highest tides persist for about four or five days each time, but at Dartmouth these high spring tides only ever occur at from around 7am to 10am and again in the evenings.

Throughout the greater part of the day, from late morning, through the lunchtime and deep into the afternoon, the beach at Lighthouse Cove was always, is now and ever shall be, available for recreation.

Only the actions of the landowner prevent the public in general and, in particular, generations of Kingswear children from enjoying the beach.

One further twist in the story is provided by Mr Southwick's claim that he has actually raised the entire level of the beach by a significant amount and that in order to comply with conditions laid down by Dart Harbour he will need to 'restore' the beach to its original, much lower level. This is likely to add to the confusion.

There is indeed a good deal of surface clearing up to do and it is also true that certain specific areas of the beach have been built up at times for specific purposes such as the storage of machinery above high water spring tides.

In most cases natural wave action has already removed any build up and it is certain that genuine restitution work would not need to involve the removal of anything remotely like the truly vast amount of natural beach material that would need to be removed in order to reduce Lighthouse beach down to a level that would be underwater on each and every high tide.

It is greatly to be hoped that the regional and national authorities – who have recently been so finicky when dealing with and possibly thwarting much needed and popular public projects – Dartmouth slipway and Castle Cove – would not stand idly by while heavy machinery was brought in to inflict wholly unwarranted environmental damage on this scale.

Finally, the role of Kingswear Parish Council deserves a special mention.

I believe the majority on the council are motivated not by petty dislike of the landowner but a clear view of where the public interest lies in the matter and a robust determination to preserve an irreplaceable part of Kingswear's heritage for future generations.

For this, a debt is owed to the leadership of Cllr Jonathan Hawkins and to the persistence of former clerk Michael Stevens.

I very much hope that their efforts will be appreciated and generously supported by readers.