FOR the benefit of Ken Keable, I want to respond to some of the diatribes directed at me in his response to my column (Western Gazette December 16).

I was concentrating on the violence perpetuated on the back of an issue where legitimate concerns were raised over the threshold of the increase of fees.

I don't want to see young people facing these increases in fees any more than he does, or anyone else. I have a niece and two nephews who are studying at university and I resent being lectured to by Mr Keable that I don't care about their futures.

Student leaders went on radio shows such as Five Live to say the violence should be put into context. There is no context. There is no excuse. A lack of respect for the rule of law leads to anarchy.

As far as the payment of fees goes, I did not make it clear in my piece it was my personal view that the fees should rise to no more than £5,000. The rest should be shared between the taxpayer and corporate sponsorship, but that would have to be dependent on the commercial need of the course. However, the Government can't borrow billions of pounds it can't afford. A country that cannot pay its debts quickly becomes a basket case.

If your readers will forgive me for making reference to eastern Europe again, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary put money aside when they converted to capitalist economies after the collapse of the Iron Curtain 20 years ago and have continued ever since.

Because they did this, their economies have been able to weather the financial tempest better than us. Until the 1990s, they had never had so much money invested before, so they put some aside. As far as banks are concerned, I worked in one for a year. I was on a lower grade, so I didn't receive any big bonus, nor did I see them being dished out.

Yes, it is immoral to hand out bumper bonuses to employees of banks such as Lloyds TSB and NatWest after that have had publicly-funded bailouts and more should be done to ensure they lend to small businesses. Bankers should be taxed on their bonuses.

Mr Keable goes on about the deregulation of the City of London. If Labour was so switched on about the morals of banking when they were in power, why didn't they tell the banks to stop offering loans and offering credit cards to vulnerable members of society knowing it was very unlikely they could pay them back?

Furthermore, many of us taxpayers were living well beyond our means for years and the boom inevitably ended in a bust.

But we need to be reminded of Liam Byrne's famous quote once again, don't we, Mr Keable? "Dear Chief Secretary (your MP, David Laws), I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left. Kind regards and good luck! Liam."

It wasn't a joke though, was it? There wasn't any money left.

Is this the action of someone who cares about the British taxpayer? I beg to differ. Ed Miliband hasn't done himself any favours by keeping this guy in his shadow cabinet .

Don't forget Labour has always been fascinated by billionaires – remember the Hinduja brothers, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone.

To go full circle we all have to take responsibility for the mess we're in – the banks, taxpayers (including students), the Labour Government, the Lib Dems and Tories for not speaking up more in opposition. With the right to govern comes the responsibility to act with wisdom, not stupidity.

The students referred to did make their voice heard and the Parliamentary debate on top-up fees bore this out, but acting within the rule of law is the only way forward.

IN reply to columnist Matthew Bell's letter directed at me (Western Gazette, January 6), I would like to say deception and deflection are all that the hunting and shooting fraternity has ever offered in place of justification for its various killing programmes.

The Countryside Alliance is a master of this with its many deflective campaigns like saving rural post offices, fly tipping, countryside education and affordable rural housing to name but a few. For the Countryside Alliance and the new chief executive, it is the case of business as usual with "Alice in Hunterland".

I think most readers, whether they live in Yeovil or Dorchester or in Yetminster or Marshwood, know what occurs in towns, villages and in the countryside at large, and to try and marginalise a particular group under the guise as speaking for and about the rural community is counterproductive.

For animal welfare campaigners, our biggest problem is one of misrepresentation and the spinning of the information or statistical data to meet the media demands of the current political agenda. The proposed badger cull is a prime example of this activity and we all await the outcome of the complex consolation process with dread.

Another example of spin your readers may be interested in is the pro-hunt group, strangely name Font – Friends of the National Trust – which each year via the Countryside Alliance website provides voting information for the annual general meeting to ensure that the pro-blood sports agenda remains in place. Font is the name and hunting is the game, just sometimes well hidden from the public.

Sometimes, when the label states this product may contain nuts, we are initially dumbfounded and confused, never expecting to understand why nuts would ever be present in this product – then later, much later, we stumble across these nuts, and usually in most unexpected of places.

WITH reference to Matthew Bell's column, headlined "Hopes for a year of rational thinking and human touch" (Western Gazette, January 6), I wish to clarify a number of points with regards to Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks.

Your assertion that the CRB charges volunteers fees between £26 and £42 is plainly wrong. The CRB has never charged volunteers for checks and this Government remains committed to reducing the barriers to volunteering.

The column also states that checks are not transferable. In October, the Government announced a review of the criminal records regime, to ensure that the public have a more proportionate and less burdensome vetting regime.

The Government's Independent Adviser for Criminality Information Management, Sunita Mason, is leading this review of Criminal Records Checks and is due to publish the results shortly.

In the meantime, it is important to note that about 130,000 unsuitable people have been prevented from working with vulnerable people in the past six years as a direct result of a CRB check. Research shows overwhelming support for CRB checks on people working with children or vulnerable adults in a paid or voluntary capacity and that employers recognise the importance of checks in protecting those vulnerable groups.

RE the report on the CLR Development site in Crewkerne, headlined "Dormice threat to housing development" (Western Gazette, January 6).

I would imagine the dormice would consider the development a threat to them. I don't expect they will be very happy, nor any other wildlife affected by the proposals.

Are all the right people considering all the right elements in this proposal?

1. Do the wildlife consultants really know the dormouse population on this site? I have seen the artificial nest boxes on site, in draughty positions and all empty. Is there continuous monitoring?

2. Respecting its status, can the dormice not be trapped under licence and moved to an alternative safe site? Like, I imagine, any badger population on site will have to be (subject to the proposed cull)?

3. I note that the proposed bridge over the new road could accommodate dormice, pedestrians and cyclists. This dual purpose would make the construction more worthwhile but would the dormice appreciate all the activity – and crossing over a busy road?

4. Would the existing, proposed contours allow for the construction of a tunnel of modest length which could be covered with soil and vegetation? Surely it is not beyond the developers' capabilities to move soil/subsoil around to facilitate this and construction during the laying of the road would make this a cheaper option? Less maintenance worries than with an elevated structure (bridge)?

5. However, are there any assurances the east/west passage will take the creatures to permanent green pastures? Are the western area of fields and hedgerows zoned green or for development in due course? If so then a bridge could become in part a white elephant.

6. But, at the end of the day, would the dormice survive the trauma of the construction period – the continuous noise and movement of men and vehicles – for this satellite town? How will the developer/wildlife experts gauge the success of any safeguard proposed if even at this stage the population of this secretive shy creature is veritably unknown.

HOW the South Somerset edition of the Western Gazette brightened a dark rainy January morning when I came across the picture of Chris Osborne and Wally Vile with the pump that helped to save Langport from the floods in the early 1960s.

I was the youngest employee at Langport Rural District Council at the time and remember these people and others with great affection. I did not realise that the pump was on show at the Langport community garden and will make an effort to go and see it.

Wally always went home for lunch and would tell me he was having cold cabbage and lard and a slap across the belly with a wet fish.

I would like to wish a happy new year to any of my old colleagues who at the time would have known me by nickname of "Chuck" or "Chuckle".

AS a long-term resident of Shaftesbury I applaud the actions and bravery of the residents of The Pavilions to protect the much-loved badgers who have lived in this area for many years.

I wonder where the newcomer Mr Whitlock gets his information from. He should have consulted local experts before writing his "persecuted resident" letter which has done nothing to improve his personal image in the town.

The badgers were blocked out of their sett just before the extremely cold weather, no information was displayed regarding a licence or his intention prior to the installation of the flaps he mentions. Without the residents continuing to feed them, the badgers could have starved and died.

I have been told by experts that he is wrong about the badgers. They are an individual small group – a mother, father and a teenager. They are visited by another group which lives a short distance away.

His property backs onto Dorset County Council Highways land which, since the Western Gazette article, has been bulldozed, flattened and every tree and bush removed. There is nothing left but wasteland. What has been known as the hump for many years no longer exists. The landscape is totally changed.

His neighbours are perfectly justified to make protests, with no public warning and apparently "nothing to do with this department" attitudes from the council.

St Martin's Lane now looks like a cul-de-sac in Birmingham instead of a rather pretty little footpath for elderly residents, schoolchildren and local people in a historical county town.

Why has this been allowed to happen?

IN these times of austerity, we are being told over and over by Government, South Somerset District Council, town councils, etc, that national and local services are being cut and to expect a tough 2011.

That said, I would like to know why the district council thinks it appropriate to spend £17,000 of our money on a report to tell us, with the future growth of Wincanton, we could have new shops built on the town car parks. Secondly, why on earth does such a report cost the princely sum of £17,000?

Well, here's a report the district council can have for free. Stop wasting our money on such nonsense; why not use the £17,000 to help new businesses fill and prosper in the countless empty shops we already have in the town. This would not only improve the look of our town, but also promote the feeling of a thriving and successful town centre.

Invest in new amenities and services to accommodate the already large "new home" build programme that brings a larger population and stop treating small market towns like ours, as some kind of inner city that needs redeveloping!

WE were disappointed to read that signs on main roads advertising rural pubs – in this instance, the Bell Inn in Broadway – are being removed by South Somerset District Council, in line with regulations which decree that advertisements can only be placed on private land belonging to the premises that they relate to, even with the owner's permission.

In the current economic climate, village pubs need all the support that they can get, and surely, are part of the Big Society.

On the bright side, however, does this mean that we will be spared all the political signage that mushrooms everywhere on private land in the lead-up to future elections?

Will political parties only be able to advertise on their own premises?

AT the first sprinkle of snow, public transport came to a halt in Yeovil.

The borough was closed to buses and, incidentally, it took Somerset County Council three days to get a few men to try to clear the snow from the town centre.

But there was one bus company that kept providing a service and that was the Nippy company. Yes, it had to drop off and pick up at Tesco but no great hardship there.

So a well-deserved pat on the back to all the staff at Nippy.