What a sad photo opportunity in last week’s Herald of Hugo Swire, Stuart Hughes etc standing in front of what used to be Pennington Point.

Tens of thousands of pounds have been spent on meetings and countless reports without effect.We are promised funding from DEFRA at the earliest opportunity. I for one will not hold my breath. It demonstrates the impotence and failure of our political leaders to do anything like timely practical action. So many quangos now have their fingers in the pie that action appears to be impossible due to conflicting interests. Needless to say, as with the floods in Somerset, human beings take a back seat to animals thanks to EU directives.

Why has the Government not swept these quangos away and given real power back to the local councils where local politicians could be held accountable? Many voters were fooled by the empty promise of “Localism”, by this Government.

The Lib/Lab/Con have no intention of handing back power to the people. At the elections I urge people to vote for UKIP, a libertarian party that genuinely wants to cut bureaucracy and return power to a local level where problems like Pennington Point can be addressed in a timely fashion.

Lawrie Brownlee

Fortfield Chambers

Sidmouth