SIR — It was perhaps fortuitous serendipity that allowed your readers such an easy comparison of attitudes on the district council as the letters page last Friday (July 22) with the page opposite. On the one hand, there is the gracious and generous congratulations of Jessica Griffith's success by Roy Harbour, the defeated Conservative candidate in the Old Cleeve by-election and, on the other, the words of Cllr Colin Hill in the article headed "Seeking views of public 'tantamount to disaster'. Or, more simply put, New Enlightened Tory v Neanderthal Tory. One could not wish for a better example of how the attitudes of Neanderthal Tory, as epitomised by Cllr Hill, have affected the staunch Conservative vote in West Somerset, as Roy Harbour so eloquently illustrates when describing the reactions to 'this reprehensive council' on the doorsteps of Old Cleeve. In the inimitable prose style we have come to expect of our ex-county councillor and ex-deputy leader of the district, Cllr Hill gives us his views on the proposed public consultation over the Minehead 'key sites'. "You are heading down a road that looks like a knee-jerk reaction about issues that are quite involved. There is danger putting this out as we will walk into people who have already made up their minds and closed their eyes . . . this is tantamount to disaster." What can one say? Perhaps the only response is that more than one jerk, besides the knee, resides in this train of thought. How interesting it lies with the perceptive analysis of Roy Harbour. Unless this district council begins to listen to its electorate, of whatever political persuasion, then the Tory group is heading for certain electoral disaster at the polls in 21 months' time. I can, however, offer one possible suggestion that may be of help. Let Roy Harbour stand for one of the two Tory-held wards where it is known that the present incumbents wish to leave. If he is successful, and he certainly deserves to be, then perhaps he can begin to bring about the radical "change from within" that will at least give the district a more acceptable public face between now and 2007. If the old guard at Bridgwater fail to grasp this nettle, then the blame for what will inevitably follow will surely rest with them. John Malin, Bancks Street, Minehead.