SIR — Having read the report "Fears of losing out on Hinkley handout" (Free Press October 30), I was relieved to see that the apparently small matter of spending £9,000 on the feasibility of building a new public swimming pool is at last being called into question by a West Somerset councillor, on the grounds that the authority has no money to put into the scheme.

I believe that Cllr Turner's comments are so transparently true that it defies credibility to believe that this study is nevertheless about to be implemented by the authority.

I have recently retired the chairmanship of PALS (Pro Active Lifestyle and Swiming) but continue as a member to exercise at St Audries pool because of the council's destruction of Aquasplash.

Therefore I will always actively support any rational move which will lead to the opening of a new public swimming pool.

However, I believe it makes no sense whatever to have a feasibility study of this sort implemented and assessed by consultants, if at the end of the process it cannot be followed through because the authority cannot afford it.

Knowing of course that a pool will almost certainly not be built for many years, it will be money for old rope for the chosen consultancy firm, for whatever the results of their study they can be assured that their conclusions will probably never be tested or challenged if they are wrong.

Also in all likelihood, within a few years new technologies will have been developed, driven by government demands for improvements in energy saving because of climate change, which will make their recommendations irrelevant anyway.

In your report, Cllr Stokes suggested that funds could possibly become available because of what is happening at Hinkley.

Well, when it is certain that those funds will become available, or even better when the council has received Hinkley's cheque, then surely that is the time to ask about the why, when and where, plus the cost, maintenance and management of a new pool, through a feasibility study and not before.

If, however, the council remains determined to give away £9,000, then I would suggest that a better choice of recipient would be the British Epilepsy Association, the British Heart Foundation, Children in Need or the Children's Hospice South West, not yet another set of consultants.

Michael Day,

Castle Mead,

Washford.