SIR — Re Jenny Matravers' letter (Free Press November 18) in response to my letter of the previous week, I never implied a wall around West Somerset or stagnation. Natural deaths and births would keep the population stable.

I repeat, flooding West Somerset with more housing and people is sad news and will not improve individual lives here.

I say that to survive on this planet money alone is useless.

Using a simple analogy of ten people stranded on a barren island with millions of pounds and no provisions, they would soon die. If they had no money but loads of products, that is food, shelter, clothing and many everyday products, they would survive.

People, young and old, will always survive as long as they make and have products - money is irrelevant, it's simply an "I owe you". Nobody dies through lack of money or poor economic growth - Greece is an example - but thousands are dying daily through lack of provisions - Africa is an example.

Life went on before money, it bluffs and causes confusion. It's not needed to survive, resources definitely are. With mountains of money and no provisions we die, with mountains of provisions and no money we live. Sorted.

I predict a lack of resources and unrest sooner rather than later as the population increases. Why we need more people astounds me. Food comes to mind, not money.

With 2,500 more homes and more people, job queues will be longer. There are thousands in our built-up cities stagnating, unemployed, many homeless.

Your correspondent mentions "West Somerset stagnation". Obviously this environment and way of life is not for you.

Please do not seek to change West Somerset forever to suit yourself. Act immediately, move to London where your sought-after environment is already built and awaits you - in doing so, respecting lovely old West Somerset and its alternative way of life, upsetting nobody.

My rhetoric is the much-needed truth and totally possible. Not unfeasible, not naive, not fictional but a blueprint to improve individual lives and save the planet.

G Bull,

Four Acre Mead,

Bishops Lydeard.