Involving millions of pounds

I WRITE in response to your front page article and the provocative headline 'Beach closed for summer'. Sensational headlines may help you sell newspapers but this immediately gives the misleading impression that the whole of the beach at Weston-super-Mare will be closed, which if readers don't study the article in detail, could severely damage our tourist trade.Your reporter must know that we have almost three miles of beautiful golden sands for visitors and residents to enjoy and the work that is being carried out will affect only a 50 metre strip on less than half a mile of beach. The work is part of a massive project involving millions of pounds, to protect homes and businesses from flooding with clear long-term benefits. It was not conceived to inconvenience people and the project has been carefully planned to minimise the disruption as much as possible.I would also point out that Mr Berry does not run Park Place putting green and in fact holds no concessions on the seafront promenade at this time and clearly doesn't want to in the future. That's fine by us as we only want to encourage those who speak up for Weston's tourism, not those who knock it.CLLR ELFAN AP REES - North Somerset Council's deputy leader EDITOR'S NOTE: Last week, the Weston & Somerset Mercury reported how sea wall repair work will mean a large section of Weston beach will be off-limits throughout the summer.In the wake of this report, North Somerset Council issued a press release insisting the sands would be "open for business as usual".However, a strip of beach running from Knightstone to the Grand Pier - stretching out 50 metres from the seawall at all points - WILL be closed to the public. Further sections will be subjected to heavy transport movements as the work takes place.Perhaps it is fitting, then, following the council's "business as usual" statement, that Cllr Ap Rees should today write of "misleading statements", as the Mercury would argue that this year's beach access is far from "usual".