Cautious though I am to enter the great Seaton regeneration debate, as a frequent visitor to Seaton to enjoy a seafront walk and coffee at one of the seafront cafes (free parking encourages us of course), I already see evidence of decline.

Cautious though I am to enter the great Seaton "regeneration" debate, as a frequent visitor to Seaton to enjoy a seafront walk and coffee at one of the seafront cafes (free parking encourages us of course), I already see evidence of decline.

Your correspondent last week expresses the opinion that all Seaton will have left soon are the seafront and beautiful cliffs that have been there for so long.

Let me bring your attention to Hallsands. For those of you that don't know, Hallsands in South Devon was a fishing village that was lost to the sea in 1917. The village used to be protected from the sea by a shingle beach, which absorbed the impact of the waves - sounds familiar?

Nearby, Plymouth dockyard was built using 660,000 tons of shingle dredged from the beaches near Hallsands between 1897 and 1902. This led to rapid four metre erosion of the beach at Hallsands, exposing the soft rock beneath the village. When large storms hit the village of Hallsands, the rocks were rapidly eroded and the houses crumbled into the sea.

Tesco apparently plans to dredge up to 750,000 tons from the seabed offshore to Seaton to raise the floodplain for building. If this lunatic scheme goes ahead, what else may lie ahead for Seaton?

B J Kempson

Latches Walk

Axminster