SIR — I welcome the comments by Ros Robinson in last week (Your Letters, May 18) on grass areas and verges.

At least now we are getting an honest debate by local people on which way the local authority should move forward on this subject.

I take on board her opinion on the wild flowers that have appeared, in particular along Seaward Way.

The main problem with this line of thinking is that wild flowers have a particularly short lifespan which may well look attractive for a few weeks of the year but for at least 45 weeks a year the verges will look exactly what they are - "wasteland".

I am encouraged by the authority's initiative in turning some of our grass areas into wild flower meadows. With the introduction of specialised wild flower mixed seed the flowering time could be lengthened but wild flower meadows need careful management to get the full effect.

Of course I doubt very much this proposal would include the grass verges on residential estates, they would be left as wasteland unless the residents decided to cut the verges themselves, which I do encourage.

Ms Robinson said in her letter that she didn't think holidaymakers would notice the verges but may I remind her that my first letter was prompted by holidaymakers coming into our office commenting how scruffy Minehead was getting. They particularly mentioned the uncut grass.

Unfortunately visitors do not see a local authority strapped for cash but a town that has stopped caring.

On the subject of the lighting along the Promenade, my wife and I carried out a survey at 9.30pm on Friday May 11 and found that of the 67 uplighters between the golf course and the harbour, to our astonishment, 44 of these lights were not functioning.

The original concept of these lights was to have a string of lights around the bay. I have reported this to the lighting department but I hold out little hope as last year I notified them that 25 lights were not working but nothing was done to rectify this.

I say that tourism is Minehead's life blood and if we let things go our tourists will also go elsewhere on holiday.

Derek Blay,

Old Farm Road,

Minehead.