I REFER to a letter in your paper of June 14 bemoaning the ‘constant negative press’ about the laser lights, the stones, the road system in Weymouth.

All I can say is that, in going along the prom every day, from the old Bandstand to the Pavilion I am assailed by the sight of the complete mess these ‘improvements’ have made of this once attractive area of the town, and any negative feelings I have seem fully justified.

I could add to the list the new viewing tower by the harbour, which looks to me like a gigantic prison watch-tower, and which from Greenhill to Bowleaze spoils the otherwise pleasant view.

Well done, those responsible! We now have the main area of Weymouth seafront, with its imposing Victorian facades and traditional shelters, juxtaposed with incongruous spindly modern lampposts, unsightly supports for the lasers and dull, ungainly-looking kiosks on the beach.

As for why all this was done – very much, it seems in the face of local grass-roots opinion – I have had a letter from one of the council’s officers attempting to justify these new measures, not one of whose arguments stands up to serious scrutiny.

To give just an example, one reason given for scrapping the fairy lights was that the new thin lampposts could not take their weight. But if that was the case those ‘knitting needles’ should not have been chosen in the first place!

A lot of these decisions seem to have been influenced by ‘experts’.

But I’m afraid that the modern expert seems to operate in a way far removed from the original meaning of the word which (from the Latin) signifies someone who has gained his skill or knowledge through tried and tested personal experience – not just from books or the latest fashionable theory.

Unfortunately the original ‘expert’ seems to be a dying breed.

John Marshall Beaumont Avene Weymouth