SIR — Re J Styles' letter in last week's Free Press regarding the land at the junction of Lower Park and Parkhouse Road in Minehead: he asks whether someone can explain the responsible authority's actions. Well, I agree with some of the writer's views but disagree with some other points, so here goes! The land is county council land. It is not owned by the district council or the town council so they are clearly not 'the responsible authorities' and have no duty to maintain the land and do not have a specific budget to do so. Some months ago, the county council engaged a contactor and the land was 'flailed'. Whilst it probably didn't look good I can only assume that the contractors did what they were engaged to do. I became aware of the situation and the town council began working with the county and others to try and find a better solution. Firstly, the town council and the county council agreed to share the cost of some of the work required, and in May a local company was employed to grub out the old roots and vegetation and remove them. The 'one rather neglected-looking small tree' that J Styles refers to is, I am reliably informed, a Torquay palm and has been deliberately left where it is. It should look better with a little TLC. The town council then brought in some top soil from a local firm. I do not agree that it is soil "which appears to have been removed from a building site" unless for some reason they are now using top soil on building sites. The soil was then weed killed. It was recently weed killed again to ensure that any remaining weeds had been killed off. The next stage is for the town council to purchase some shrubs for planting in the autumn and this is on track to be carried out. Minehead Gardening Association has volunteered to maintain the site after the shrubs have been planted. It would surely have been absurd to try and put plants in the soil at the beginning of the year after all the rain that we had or before it had been properly weed killed. Equally it would have been stupid to put the plants in at the height of summer and watch them shrivel up and die within days. This would have just been a quick 'botched job'. As I said at the start – this is county council land and the action being taken by the town council can only be regarded as a 'one-off', so if it is not looked after then it is unlikely that there will be a repeat. Finally I would like to thank all concerned for their assistance to date and look forward to this job being finished at the earliest opportunity. Mrs Susan Sanders, Clerk, Minehead Town Council.