In the 47 years that we have lived in the distribution area of the Mid Somerset Series, we have never read a more disgraceful article than the one, apparently written by Emma Frampton, on the sale of the former MP's house (last week's paper).

The ousting of a very popular, long-serving MP is one thing, but then, to suggest that he has put his house on the market because of the loss of his MP's salary, and further, to denigrate, cynically and sarcastically, various aspects of the property, is to sink to the lowest depths of gutter journalism. Even the renowned 'gutter press' might be forgiven for feeling envious.

At the very least, we expect a public and personal apology to David Heathcoat-Amory and an undertaking not to interfere in the sale of his property, which is no concern of yours anyway.

Spare us from the indignity of a whingeing justification for the unjustifiable.

Jean and Bill MacKay

The Liberty

Wells

I have just read your spread regarding the sale of Mr Heathcoat-Amory's house in Pilton.

The tone of your writing was nothing better than a snide's politics of envy. You shame your profession. Also perhaps you might explain why you are acting as an estate agent – your publicity is certainly a boost for the agent instructed – or are you hoping to receive a quiet commission?

It has been well understood for years that your newspaper is disgracefully partisan, in fact almost a Lib Dem in-house prompt sheet. It will be interesting to see your blank spaces when Tessa Munt's shortcomings are exposed – as they will be – because nobody is whiter than white, not even a Lib Dem, as professional journalistic exposures have shown us over the past few years and weeks.

Janet Keen

Burnham Road

Highbridge

I would have thought that an experienced reporter would have been very aware that the vast majority of the Wells constituency readers respect Mr Heathcoat-Amory and are exceedingly grateful to him for the time and effort he put into his constituency throughout his 27 years in office.

He took on board many and various problems that so many people brought to him and did his very best to help them.

The expenses debacle certainly needed tightening up as it was quite wrong for many of our MPs across the board to receive payment for goods and services that the average person has to finance himself. However these claims were signed and passed, thus wrongly encouraging nearly everyone to jump on the bandwagon.

However this should not negate or undermine all the hard work he has put into his constituency. He deserves our grateful thanks and I know he will be sorely missed by those who know his true worth.

Name and address supplied

Emma Frampton responds: I note the comments made by our readers to my report.

However, I strongly believe this article was of great public interest.

Mr Heathcoat-Amory is a well-known person, and the fact that he is leaving the area after representing it for 27 years is certainly newsworthy.

However there is an added public interest element here: it is widely agreed that Mr Heathcoat-Amory lost his seat due to the expenses scandal and in his case those expenses were claimed for Beales House.

Mr Heathcoat-Amory regularly submitted invoices – and signed the expense claim forms – for goods, services and bills totalling many tens of thousands of pounds for Beales House. These included utility bills, council tax demands, telephone bills, cleaning, gardening and insurance bills.

Thousands of pounds were also claimed for food consumed during the time that Mr Heathcoat-Amory spent at Beales House. There were also bills submitted for the updating of the house, such as the cost of new electrics for the kitchen.

Copies of all of these documents are in the public domain, can be viewed by anyone, and have been scrutinised by us.

All of these bills were later reimbursed with tax-payers' money. I believe that the public should see how substantial amounts of tax-payers' money were spent.

When the expenses scandal broke I treated all the MPs from our area – whatever their political allegiance happened to be – with the same degree of investigation. Please be reassured, I will continue to do so.

Editor's comment: page 26