PLEASE, please reassure me, Captain Kimitri, sorry Cllr Kimitri, the pirate ship docking in the Marine Lake is for the benefit of the town, and not for

PLEASE, please reassure me, Captain Kimitri, sorry Cllr Kimitri, the pirate ship docking in the Marine Lake is for the benefit of the town, and not for the benefit of your business one or two fathoms away.If a councillor had a business within shouting distance of the Tropicana, would we now have a nice sparkling new building located there? Please be assured, I support any development that benefits the town, its residents and businesses as a collective group.Cllr Kimitri, your comments would be very welcome.SHAUN CANNIFORD - Via emailIT REALLY is extraordinary how Weston will make a few encouraging steps forward but then proposals surface which will undermine everything. The restoration and conversion of the baths and theatre pavilion on Knightstone Island have been carried out with painstaking attention to detail. Today, these listed buildings appear much as they did when they first arrived: with turrets and balconies, and wonderful ventilation lanterns and cupolas. For me, the new buildings do not overwhelm, as I feared they would, their Edwardian neighbours. Indeed, from the main promenade they are barely visible and they have injected new life into a part of Weston that had become so forlorn.And now what may happen? Someone has proposed plonking a pirate ship in the middle of the Marine Lake! A really charming part of the town is to have a theme-park make-over. Despite the improbability of its actual survival in a good winter storm, the structure will be completely out of place with a huge impact on the Birnbeck conservation area. The Marine Lake belongs to swimmers and paddlers, rowing boats and pedalos, sand castles and sun bathing. That it has been few of those things in recent years was entirely due to council neglect. Once the lake is refurbished (and August was a great time to start!), for pity's sake, all it will need is looking after, and letting be!HOWARD AND ROSIE SMITH - Stafford Place, WestonHAVING read last week's Mercury (page 3), I feel the need to remind Chris Kimitri that having been elected to a council does not mean that he can go around putting pirate ships on other people's property without asking.The design as given contravenes health and safety, would act as a magnet for vandals, and when the next winter storm blew up I think Mr Kimitri would find pieces of his ship washed up outside the front of his conveniently-situated hotel.There are a number of the new councillors who need to consider their positions and stop acting like God's gift to politics because they are, at present, behaving like a self-serving pain in the backside. One suggestion I would put forward is that all councillors should try to communicate with their electorate rather than patronise them, bearing in mind that there is always another election in the end. If that sounds cynical then I plead guilty. I don't trust any of them because I find that it saves time.BRIAN AUSTIN - Alma Street, Weston