I thought Sidmouth was ‘The Jewel in the Crown’.

I feel sorry for visitors believing the advert and coming here to spend their holiday in a peaceful seaside resort.

Having just returned home myself, around 10.30am, the whole high street is full of lorries delivering food and vans delivering to small shops.

There is a massive Tesco lorry, causing chaos, a Co-Op lorry doing the same thing and vans everywhere. Shoppers cannot get to their cars to drive home, as they can’t reverse. Lorries are driving on to the pavements, squashing shoppers into shop doorways. The whole of Sidmouth is in gridlock.

Then there’s the massive refuse lorry, stuck in the high street and can’t move at all. The whole scene is unbelievable.

Why doesn’t the local council stipulate that all deliveries are completed by 9am and leave the town, also by 9am, as they did in Switzerland 40 years ago? Then the whole town is left for shoppers – quality time to enjoy our interesting shops and various cafes and to enjoy lour lovely promenade.

If I didn’t live here, I wouldn’t visit Sidmouth; it is just a disaster zone, and that’s without the crumbling buildings and the empty shops.

The ‘Jewel in the Crown’? No, I don’t think so.

SA MacFadyen

Weston, Sidmouth