Thank you, Plymouth City Council

RETURNING home from work on the evening of Monday, 18 May,

I saw that a group of Travellers’ vehicles were making camp on the grasses recreation area at the end of Embankment Road in Plymouth, a known camp spot.

On returning home, I attempted to contact the police on 101, but the line was very busy.

Going to work next morning, I saw that the campsite was now nicely established, confirming they had been there overnight, which under current regulations is, supposedly, not allowed.

I managed to contact the police and advised them on what I had seen, and after two hours the police got back to me.

They advised that after contacting various authorities, the matter was out of their hands and the reason why was due to the Plymouth City Council advising that this was a designated spot for the Travellers and the matter was now with them.

The person advising this agreed with myself that this made the current movement restrictions regarding overnight stays for persons outside the area very difficult for them to enforce.

So Plymouth City Council, with the current restrictions in place, why are you allowing this to happen and by doing so, can you advise how this encampment area will be made safe for locals once the Travellers decide they want a fresh vista and move on?

This is the same area the council advise planning consultation is being done with thoughts to put up another hotel and fast food outlet (which we need like a hole in the head) – so, if that goes ahead, where will the council divert Travellers to?

It won’t be on the green space near me, as the council sold that five years ago to a housing association. So, if you have a smallish sized green near you, you might worry!

Marc Houlton Plymouth, Devon regular contributors to the Letters page in WMN. Both names appeared on the page which prompted my earlier letter – my apologies to both.

Second, while Prof Webb is undoubtedly right about the dictionary definition of ‘consensus’ – a word about which he rather condescendingly reckons I am confused – I do wonder if he can tell us of any other scientific theory where the existence of a consensus among scientists was deemed to be a relevant fact?

Third, Prof Webb can be rather scathing about those he does not think have read letters diligently or carefully enough. However, I do not think on this occasion he has shown