WITH regard to the letter published in your paper (October 11) from C McAuliffe.

I do not wish to be politically incorrect, but I strongly disagree with her comment that Dartmoor, in particular the B3212, should be fenced. She writes that objectors to fencing feel, 'we must not spoil the look of Dartmoor', this is very true, but it is not the only reason I would personally oppose the fencing of the moor.

To fence Dartmoor would create more problems than it solves, Dartmoor could become a theme park of large, designated 'honey pot' car parks which would naturally attract many visitors, further increasing erosion on the tors that the car parks would be on. By allowing people to choose from many areas to walk, erosion is kept to a minimum on Dartmoor.

Driving across Roborough Down, or the B3212 between Oakery Bridge and Lower Cherrybrook Bridge, examples of areas of the moor heavily fenced and walled, is faster and more of a 'race track' than any other areas of Dartmoor! This leads me to think that fencing Dartmoor would create two problems: traffic would speed up on the roads, but visitors who have come to the area to experience the beauty of the landscape would have to travel slowly to see over the fences and vegetation that would inevitably grow. These varying speeds would result in more accidents involving people, far more dangerous and costly in human terms.

The only answer would seem to be in enforcing the speed limit by regular blitzes by the police. Then a respect for the speed limit, initiated to protect the animals, would prevail — but that is another argument altogether!

Pamela Callow

The Rock Inn

Yelverton