SIR — Having arrived at Dunster Beach last Thursday (June 21), we thought we would start our brief stay with an early evening glass of wine and a read of the papers at the Luttrell Arms, we stumbled across the letters from Messrs Mendola and O'Byrne and couldn't wait to buy the next Free Press to read the responses.

If we had been first time visitors reading these exhanges you would have thought we had arrived in one of the UK's 'Crap Towns' (there is a book - Google it!). But we are not first time visitors - we have been coming regularly throughout the year for the last seven years and will continue to do so (as will our children and grandchildren).

Yes, you have Butlins. It isn't our cup of tea but it does not interefere with our visits. In fact it has always surprised us how little impact it has on the beach, seafront and town centre. Yes once or twice we have heard the 'drum and bass' but it doesn't intrude.

Minehead does look a bit tired and careworn and some elements reflect a "tacky cheap image". Name me any UK holiday/visitor destination that does not.

We live near Stratford-upon-Avon with William Shakespeare and all that. Wonderful though this is, we have our share of cheap and tacky in spite (or because) of millions of visitors a year.

Our train/bus links are rubbish, town centre shopping is dying because of out of town developments (Aldi and Waitrose open next month) and can you imagine how our Cranford set reacted when Poundland opened in one of the main streets.

We also live less than a mile from Long Marston airfield, home of the annual Bulldog Bash and the Global Gathering which more than trumps Butlins 'drum and bass'. Would I spend a late evening in Stratford-upon-Avon on a Friday or Saturday night? I would not. So my first point to you all is you are not alone.

There is a future. I am fairly confident that, looking back, the likes of Abergavenny (food) Brecon (jazz) Hay-on-Wye (books and literature) Ludlow (food) and Padstow (Rick Stein), don't know how they got to be adopted as benchmarks of all that is good almost without question.

If you walk past four Cornish pasty shops in a row in Padstow you realise it isn't quite the class act it thinks it is by the way. It didn't happen overnight - it took time.

And that is my second point - you have to be in for the long haul which is one thing politicians of all colours are not very good at.

Although the letters are a bit Butlins bashing in the context of Minehead, what is needed here is to think about Minehead in its wider context. I have to say that "where Exmoor meets the sea" strikes me as dull - in fact what I picture with that phrase is a dead end. What is needed is more vibrant language that reflects the reality. Isn't Minehead a 'gateway' (spring board or launchpad) for things coastal (sailing, fishing, windsurfing etc) and country (walking, riding, cycling etc) for Exmoor (and beyond)?

I have no expertise in these matters. But, and this is my third point is what is needed is some imagination (and not of the electric fence sort). Of course money will be a big issue but a failure of imagination is the biggest issue.

The other danger in the debate is it becomes focused on the views of the 'middle aged and middle classes'. Your future, whatever you want it to be, has to embrace the younger generation (and I speak as a pensioner) or your plans are doomed. So that's my fourth point - find a way to engage with them.

And lastly, Butlins is not the enemy. They are part of the fabric of Minehead life. Prejudices should be put aside. You need to kiss and make up!

If it helps, I have never understood why people keep heading south on the M5 when a quick right at Junction 23 is all that is needed. Perhaps we ought to keep it our secret.

Julian Davies,

Lower Quinton,

Stratford-upon-Avon