PLEASE allow me to add a coda to my letter (Times, January 8) in support of David Inman's excellent letter in the same issue. Although I still think that the putative putsch by Plymouth is such a manifest non-runner as to be a paper-tiger intended to bully councillors, it is important for West Devon residents to make clear to the Boundary Committee their feelings about losing their small, responsive, representative borough council. To require a unitary scheme without a 'no-change' option is like asking a turkey to choose the accompaniments for Christmas dinner. The points to be made to Boundary Committee are that no change must always be an option; that the democratic deficit for West Devon inherent in a council which will require 4,000 electors to return one councillor (compared with about 1,300 for the existing WDBC) would mean that few would know who his councillor is, let alone stand any chance of actually knowing him or her; that an executive-run council is wholly inappropriate for an intensely rural area like West Devon, where every councillor's voice must carry equal weight if ultra-sparse wards like Lydford and Dartmoor Forest are to have a fair shout; that primary legislation is required to impose unitary local government and that the South Devon and Dartmoor proposal has been forced onto a reluctant WDBC by extra-statutory government pressure against the wishes of the people of West Devon. All those now shouting about the Sainsbury proposal know that they have seven councillors in Tavistock seats in a 31-seat council and some reasonable chance of influencing at least some of them on issues they feel strongly about. Under the South Devon and Dartmoor Unitary proposal, we should have two councillors in a 60- seat executive-run council. That is what I mean by a democratic deficit. So I join with Mr Inman in urging those of your readers who care about such things to write to the Boundary Committee for England ('Structural Review of Devon'), Trevelyan House, Great Peter Street, London SW1P 2HW or email them at [email protected]">[email protected] We should also lobby our West Devon Councillors: 'Just Say No!' Roger W Mathew Down Road Tavistock