WE are completely amazed at the most recent undemocratic attitude of the partnership committee (December 2001) taken at their meeting regarding the Rural Gateway.

The 130 letters and e-mails we received for onward transmission to the committee were ignored, despite being given to the offices four weeks before the meeting. One of the letters was from Horrabridge Parish Council asking for its removal. And the Dartmoor Society was not on the report at all.

Furthermore, we are surprised at the attitude of Cllrs Cann, Madigan, Marsh and Hockridge, only one of whom lives locally, when five West Devon Borough Councillors spoke for its removal. Regrettably, three of these were non-voting.

As to Mr Taylor's letter (Times, January 10), first let us point out that Cllr Connelly was not elected when the Rural Gateway was installed and nor was he when it was re-installed a year later.

Secondly, we would like to point out that the decision to install the Gateway was taken by the partnership committee on the recommendations of an ad hoc working party who were split 1:1. The one in favour being Cllr Phillips.

Thus we see that the recommendations were accepted from one person by the rest of the partnership committee who, it would appear, followed their usual route of not reading or understanding the impact of the papers presented to them, as was blatantly obvious at their last meeting.

As far as Mr Taylor's letter goes, for us, this is not, and has never been, a political issue but a safety and aesthetic one.

If you too consider that this eyesore should be removed please write to Edward Chorlton, Environment Director, County Hall, Exeter, EX2 4QW or your local councillor. We will be forwarding the e-mails and letters that we received to Mr Chorlton.

Ian Kilpatrick

209 Whitchurch Road

Tavistock

Bill Smyly

Pathways, Grenofen

I AM surprised that Mr Taylor (Letters January 10) should seek to politicise the issue of the Whitchurch Rural Gateway since from its inception it has had cross-party support.

The West Devon Partnership Committee, which decided to initiate the gateway and has responsibility for making recommendations to Devon County Council is made of up four county councillors, five West Devon Borough Councillors and three parish councillors from the link committees. Within that committee there were only three Liberal Democrat Councillors.

The partnership committee, which decided recently to retain the gateway unchanged, had only two Liberal Democrat councillors out of a total of nine committee members. Councillor Richard Phillips, the Conservative West Devon Borough Councillor for the Horrabridge area, a long term member of the partnership committee, has always strongly supported the scheme.

I would, however, agree with Mr Taylor that the initial public consultation on the scheme was inadequate, and accordingly Cllr Donkin and myself have worked hard during the gateway trial period to facilitate debate between the county highway engineers and the local community.

We are disappointed that this had not led to changes being made to the gateway to improve its safety, but will continue to work towards this objective. Our task would have been much easier if all the Conservative members had voted to support changes.

Readers will know that in Devon County Council no political party has overall control, so the regrettable social services cuts have been agreed by Conservative, Labour, Liberal, Independents and Liberal Democrat councillors.

Roy Connelly

Tavistock Town and County Councillor

I WAS surprised to read Mr Taylor's comments concerning Liberal Democrat Councillors, Connelly and Donkin.

I have always been absolutely opposed to the gateway, which I consider to be ugly, dangerous and totally useless in solving the traffic problems in Whitchurch Road. Try exiting Priory Close, it remains as daunting as ever!

Peter Donkin did initially support the gateway and, in particular, the principle of extending cycle paths. He also took the trouble to contact opponents of the scheme such as myself, to obtain their views. This action was not a political one as I am not a supporter of his party. It was, I believe, a genuine effort to represent the people of Tavistock.

I took his recent letter as an indication that he now considered the gateway an expensive failure and have no doubt that he took into account the views of the many local people to whom he has talked on the subject. I can only respect people who have the courage to admit they have made a mistake. I only wish the partnership committee was equally responsible in representing the electorate.

Ray Hurle

84 Priory Close, Tavistock