SIR — I have a vision of the new Minehead given to us by the West Somerset District Council planning committee.
There will be many houses and flats; there will be no hotels, no small business people. There will be no visitors, as they can't afford to park.
The Beach Hotel will be the last point for people to visit.
The town centre will be a play area for kids who have no work; the gardens a place for drunks and drug taking; the shops empty with broken windows.
The town will have moved to Seaward Way.
The council has yet again been taken in by the word of the corporate spin-doctor. McDonalds have got planning permission to open on Vulcan Road car park. That does not surprise me at all.
The council will tell us that it will bring jobs and prosperity to the town.
McDonalds are shareholder-led commercial enterprises. Are we to believe come the winter they will keep on all the staff? I don't think so. The number of full-time jobs will be very few.
The town last year suffered a disaster in visitor numbers and the spin off from Butlins was very low. So what do the council do? Two fingers to the local businesses, let's get in the one company with the name to take away the last bit of profit from the people trying to make a living from catering.
Yet if you are a local like John Davis and you want to open a small seafood unit (a typical seaside town venture) forget it. You have no chance, you're not big enough to have the weight to persuade the powers that be.
There is only one seafood shop in Minehead. There are many cafes, bars and restaurants that will suffer by this move.
I have to add that I love a McDonalds and when in a hurry always look for one. It's something I don't think too much about, maybe our planners did the same.
Dudley R Seale,
Hillview Close,
Minehead.