SIR — The annual thoughtless shifting of cobbles swept along Minehead's foreshore from behind the harbour is again underway.

They are, as usual, being dumped at mid-tide, where wave action is insufficient to move them.

The Environment Agency recently spent a large budget on a study of our foreshore. The rail line is the "barrier of last resort" according to their advice and if it goes the approaches to Minehead will be overwhelmed by the sea.

However, someone (who?) has recently spent large sums of our money reinforcing the storm beach in front of the golf course and many people hope that this coastal defence will survive.

Well, it won't, unless the contractors who are presently told to dump the harbour cobbles at mid-tide (by whom - nobody around the harbour seems to know) are instead told to put them beyond the last groyne, exactly where the defensive works were done last year.

This will reconnect the storm beach with its supply of cobbles, restoring its stability.

Anyone walking past the lifeguard station or, to a lesser extent, past the ill-conceived groynes installed with the sea wall will be aware just how much the longshore drift of cobbles from cliffs to the west has been disrupted.

Richard Clarke,

Harbour Court,

The Esplanade,

Minehead.