FURTHER to your letters page (July 19), my thanks to Mike Poole and the Weir Quay Community Water Sports for supporting my call for the boat park and its adjacent area of foreshore at Weir Quay to be taken into public ownership for the benefit of the sailing and gig clubs, and the wider community.

I appreciate that finding funding in today's financial climate will not be easy, but I am sure many individuals would be prepared to lend material support to make such a project a reality.

Mike said that he and his committee recognise the fragility of the natural environment of the Weir Quay area and the need to protect it; such sentiments seem at odds with his committee's desire to place a large and unwelcome development there.

Further, I was mystified why he finds tourists and tourism an encumbrance; tourism could help create much needed work for the high percentage of unemployed young people in the area; how many jobs will the Weir Quay Water Sports create?

I think we can all support the principle aim of his committee, to preserve the sailing and rowing activities at Weir Quay, but to do this in harmony with the natural beauty of the area.

However, my own concern is to achieve these goals without danger to life and limb. Should the proposed development go ahead and the sailing and gig clubs leave their current boat parking areas for the proposed new site, we will have the spectacle of young people hauling their craft along a busy thoroughfare and around a blind corner to the launching area. How long will it be before we have a tragic accident?

This is why I request the community to put their support behind a call to bring the boat park and its environs into public ownership, and for the Weir Quay Community Water Sports to withdraw their planning application until this matter is resolved.

Tom Young

Bere Alston