SIR — Even people who support West Somerset District Council's decision to sell Minehead's Vulcan Road car park for retail development must be aware of the strength of opposition expressed through public meetings, letters to the Free Press and a 5,000-plus signature petition. It cannot be in anybody's interest for Minehead's community to be deeply divided. So we should all be concerned by the rejection by Cllr Steven Pugsley and his "puppets" of Cllr Jess Griffith's excellent compromise proposal to use the Vulcan Road site for mixed development including business units, tourist attractions and retail. This constructive idea could have reunited the town. Was it really not worth deferring decisions to give it proper consideration? Astonishingly, the decision to sell for retail has been taken in advance of any debate on Donaldsons's revised report on their West Somerset Retail and Town Centre Survey. We are also told that the council's half-hearted attempt to attract tourist development to the site has resulted in one credible bid which has yet to be assessed. Apart from this, of the four short-listed retail developers, one directly represents Asda/Walmart and at least one other acknowledges that their proposals could include this retailer. Can it be a coincidence that Asda/Walmart already own an adjacent plot of land? Is this yet another foregone conclusion by West Somerset District Council, despite Asda/Walmart's notoriety for undermining town centre shops and offering only low-paid jobs? The council's own local opinion survey has demonstrated that 61 per cent of local residents do not favour a supermarket development on the Vulcan Road site. Yet those of us who oppose this development have been labelled "unrepresentative". Some district councillors have gone so far as to accuse us, unfairly, of "vested interests". Perhaps we should be asking whether any "vested interests" on the council have resulted in this ill- conceived and undemocratic venture. Jenny Lennon-Wood, Periton Lane, Minehead.