Jill Ridley, of Dawlish, writes:

Can somebody please tell us why, since the sea wall at Teignmouth has been damaged, Railtrack have fenced off the access to the beach at the bottom of Smugglers Lane?

We can understand the need to block off access to the sea wall, but surely they have no legal right to block off the beach.

People walk all the way from Teignmouth for some of the best coffee and snacks in the area (yes I’ve sampled) only to find they can’t get to the kiosk due to Railtrack’s fencing, so we can’t get on the beach from this end or off from Teignmouth.

Oh I’m sure they’ll claim ‘health and safety’... but a sign stating people walk on the beach at their ‘own risk’ would be entirely feasible, especially as they don’t seem to be in much of a hurry to fix it, and won’t give anyone a deadline. Are we going to have to put up with this all summer?

Also, why all the thousands of gallons of water pouring from a blocked drain at the bottom of the lane? This has been going on since the begining of March, turning the footpath into a river and causing even more landslips... nobody seems to know who is responsible. How efficient.