SIR - When times are difficult and government is asking everyone to take cuts in pay and jobs, we expect everyone to march to the same tune.

Government (national and local) have to set the example and political parties have to make good on their promises.

What EDDC should have been doing these last months and years is showing us how to do better with what we have got. At the Knowle, for instance, becoming a centre of excellence for green building management. Better insulation? Solar panels (goodness knows there are enough roofs there!)? Showing industry how it’s done without needing wind farms in Lyme Bay. Showing industry how to put its own house in order. In short, establishing EDDC at the forefront of energy saving, renewables, management of the environment and preservation of parkland and areas of beauty.

As can happen, EDDC seem to be going down instead as the party of cut and run management.

Spending millions on new buildings replacing ones that were themselves built for purpose, and ending up destroying the AONB environment as a sop to creating employment in the area while deliberately moving current employment somewhere else.

In fact, ironically, doing exactly the opposite of the message government says it is putting out. No wonder there is no published cost analysis.

Perhaps Mr Cameron and his colleagues will wonder if the enemy are in their own camp? Elections today are lost on turn out as much as on votes.

People do not forget when parties are dishonest, or clearly out of touch and unwilling to listen, and people stop voting. Do politicians want the EDDC example to hand the advantage of the active minority parties or are they going to do something?

Steve Mathews

via email