Dear Editor,

Citing the Eden Project as a good reason for pressing ahead with the Lagoon (Postbag, February 27) was unwise - last year they reported a £1.5-million loss - and people who visit there have something to look at! How exciting is a concrete barrier with wind turbines and floating solar panels which do nothing to enhance the visual appeal of the Exmoor coast?

It should concern locals that fans of the Lagoon project are emphasising the potential of moving Minehead into the category of “upmarket” with little to back up their wishful thinking. While you can produce verifiable projections for the benefits of electricity generated by tidal power…the rest is guesswork. Serious questions need to be answered. How did Brighton and Hove Council end up with a bill for £51-million because they backed i360, a scheme to build a seafront observation tower? That project went bust…it involved people associated with the Lagoon project. A “Visitor Observation Tower” is included in the proposed scheme here. Tourists who didn’t arrive at Minehead in their yachts would come via the already over-used A39…which won’t have been improved by extra use during the many years of construction work.

I look forward to learning more about how the £billions needed to fund this project will be raised and note our MP’s desire to push the scheme forward. Is the increased tourism “carrot” a distraction from the possibility that Minehead could just end up with an “industrial” harbour and outlook? Will potential investors, who are committing themselves to reinstating a Watchet/ Blue Anchor road link at a cost of £36-million (!) be looking at the Brighton debacle and wondering if this project is a sort of Bristol Channel Bubble?

Yours sincerely,

Sandra Jones

Old Cleeve

Dear Editor,

The demands from Rachel Gilmour, MP for Tiverton and Minehead, that the Prime Minister rule out the use of UK bases for strikes against Iran are risking the lives of our service members for political gain. As someone whose family has been directly targeted by the Iranian regime here in the UK, I know firsthand that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps does not discriminate and does not respect international law. The thousands of Iranians murdered by their own government this year alone should be proof enough that this regime cannot be reasoned with.

By working to block our allies, Rachel Gilmour is effectively leaving thousands of British soldiers, airmen, and their families stationed in Cyprus at risk. The first duty of any government, and any MP, is the protection of its people. To prioritise political posturing over the immediate, defensive security of our service members in the line of fire is a dereliction of duty. The government has now rightly reversed its position; Rachel Gilmour should do the same.

James Wright

Exmoor

Dear Editor,

Somerset council are a disgrace.

Last year, the council was £161-million plus in debt, and paid a company £20-million to sort out their financial mess which the council got themselves into and should have to take the blame.

Also, on top of that they are paying £5-million for new computer equipment for their staff.

Who has to foot the bill - the community of Somerset, of course.

Somerset's roads are in a dreadful stat and are in need of road surfacing, never mind making excuses about the wet weather we have had.

They should get out and resurface our Somerset roads, that is what the consumer pays car taxes for.

Linda Sparks

Williton

Dear Editor,

A 39 traffic chaos at £600,000 cost to us local Council Taxpayers. Only 30 years old and "could fail"?

Who authorises these works and who says they require all this expense?

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Does a potential fault really need all these works?

May be a re wire or circuit board replacement resulting in minimal disruption would have sufficed

Is it the old council excuses of capital versus revenue budgets?

Endless arguments concerning revenue versus capital expenditure ensue that Highways almost always prefer the poorly executed "bodge up" as opposed to a well constructed repair

We still await the original mandatory traffic management plan.

The contractors (Centregreat) should have been required to maintain a manual control system at all times given the delays and to legally have to pay the council and local businesses compensation.

Why was this not part of the contract?

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Dowding, via email

Dear Editor,

With all the recent headlines about non-stun religious animal slaughter, and the Food Labelling (Halal and Kosher Meat) Bill introduced by MP Esther McVey on February 24, 2026, I feel compelled to speak up!

From my perspective, the entire debate around “stun vs non-stun” misses the bigger issue. Whether an animal is stunned or not, they are still being killed. The label doesn’t change the outcome for the individual whose life is taken.

Over a ten-year period, Animal Aid carried out undercover investigations inside 16 slaughterhouses — both stun and non-stun. What they documented was deeply disturbing. Their footage shows animals improperly stunned, violently handled, and in some cases still conscious while their throats were cut. These weren’t isolated incidents. They revealed routine suffering, repeated law-breaking, and systemic failures.

The suffering exposed by Animal Aid isn’t confined to one method, one faith, or one label. It runs throughout the meat industry as a whole. Personally, I don’t believe there is an “ethical” way to kill someone who does not want to die. Animals are not products. They are individuals. And they deserve to live free from harm and exploitation.

Alex Harman, via email