SIR — May I ask the councillors protesting about the fact that the A39 is not to suffer pointless improvement one simple question? Do they not realise what a treasure they have in West Somerset?

Speaking as one who has just moved to Minehead from Halstead in Essex, can I give you some idea of what by-passes and road-widening schemes mean?

Example 1: Millions of pounds spent on the through road from the Midlands to the east coast ports over the last 20 years (the A604). Result: Straight stretches of dual carriageway alternating with right angled bends through villages, and 38 (soon 40 or 44 tonne) lorries in an endless stream clogging the streets of Halstead.

Example 2: That same road then downgraded and renumbered and traffic advised to go by alternative routes. Result: Millions of pounds totally wasted, and the traffic still thundering through night and day.

Example 3: More millions spent on by-passing three towns on the other main road through Halstead. Result: The land between the towns and the by-passes is filled up with massive new housing developments, and so more traffic pours on to the road and promptly clogs up into endless tailbacks through Halstead.

Thank your lucky stars you are in a cul-de-sac, not on a through route. Open up access and the only ones to gain will be the road and housing developers as the "oil-boys" flood your new by-passes with more and more lorries and cars.

The A39 is not a motorway. Why not count your blessings, slow down and ease your blood pressure?

"Improving" the road will gain, at best, no more than a few minutes' travel time, at the cost of more noise pollution and the despoliation of a superb and rare environment.

Minehead itself is a treasure. If it were opened up it would simply make it easier for bigger businesses from outside to over-run it. To whose gain?

Lastly, how can anyone say the railway is of no use to West Somerset?

Why on earth should it remain a 25 mph railway? The heaviest and fastest trains in the country can run on this line and for a fraction of the cost of road improvements it could carry many times the present traffic.

Even as it stands, it could carry at least 300 people at a time to Butlins at peak times, and at least 500 tons of freight in a single train. It only needs a little imagination to realise the potential of the investment put into the railway when it was built.

I would ask the protesters what their motive is if it is not greed for short term profit? I would ask them why, if they feel Somerset is lagging behind other areas, do they not live in these other areas?

I would ask each morning as they wake up to thank their lucky stars they have the fortune to live in such unspoilt surroundings to which more and more people will surely want to come as their own areas are ruined.

By improving access they will only foul their own nest, and destroy the very attractiveness that encourages people to visit, or like myself, to stay and contribute to the community.

I would ask them, if they must sell Somerset, to sell it as a place that has successfully avoided the follies of mindless road-building and is a proud independent and self-confident oasis in an ever-growing desert being formed by money-grabbing developers whose only aim is lining their own pockets.

T Stockdale,

1 Kensington Grove,

Minehead.