SIR — The Watchet East Quay development is in the news again (Free Press March 12) and predictably we have town councillor David Banks dusting down his familiar mantra which can be summarised as follows:
Building a speculative block of flats on the East Quay would have magically transformed Watchet into a West Somerset utopia with jobs galore and everyone would have had a great time after all these years of deprivation.
How dare the rich selfish boat-owners have the audacity to object to the scheme!
In fact it's not quite like that. In his letter (Free Press March 19), Cllr Banks refers to "the selfish few whose own interests try to override those of the majority".
Firstly, could I remind him that in submissions to the district council planning committee in November 2008, 505 objected to the scheme, far outnumbering the 233 in support.
Secondly, most boat owners are ordinary people - keeping an average-size boat in Watchet Marina costs less than smoking 20 cigarettes a day or having a couple of pints in the pub every evening.
I know no one in the Watchet maritime community who doesn't want the East Quay to be developed. What they didn't want was a monstrous edifice originally designed for a Manchester suburb which took no account of the environment and which would have made it virtually impossible to efficiently operate the marina - which now appears to be the town's major commercial enterprise apart from the paper mill.
That is why many of us welcome the news that there are to be discussions about a smaller and less grandiose scheme, which hopefully will be more in keeping with a quaint harbour town while still providing jobs and new business.
Meanwhile, as Cllr Banks ploughs his lonely political furrow, Urban Splash remains conspicuously absent from the site for which they obtained planning permission 18 months ago.
At least the derelict area is being used by people working on their boats and these people patronise the shops, pubs and restaurants, bringing more revenue to the town than Urban Splash has managed to do up to now.
Tony James,
The Esplanade,
Watchet.