Dear Editor,

The Wellington Weekly published a report that the cash strapped and immensely in debt Somerset Council has spent £272,824 on a consultancy agency to find out how busy each of its car parks are. A complete oxymoron; spending money to save money, Perhaps they should get another consultant agency to explain to them how that doesn't work.

May I put forward a suggestion? All these car parks have ticket machines that keep the information of tickets issued, those who have not paid are issued a parking ticket, that is also recorded - add the two together and hey presto, that's the amount of people using the car park. I'm sure someone at County Hall could have done the maths and saved the equivalent of the whole council tax bill of a Somerset village.

Andrew Brown, via email

Dear Editor,

Wayne Gregory of the Vale of Taunton and Banwell Harriers was found guilty of hunting a wild mammal with dogs on 20 April in Taunton.

As someone interested to see for myself how trail hunting works in practice, I had some insight into this back in December last year which your readers may find interesting.

Several people, myself included, were walking our dogs in the Woodland Trust's Crosslands Wood near Thorne St Margaret one mid-December 2025 morning (from which the Harriers have been banned by letter) and came across a pack of West Country Harriers, with a few Stud Book Harriers in their midst, enjoying hunting in the woods. As this wood is in the "country" for the Vale of Taunton and Banwell Harriers, it is presumed that this was the pack. Stationed in the adjacent fields, immediately beside the pedestrian entry gates to the wood were green jacketed huntsman, on horseback, driving the hounds back into the woods. Walking along the perimeter path, I noticed two black attired men digging below a fallen tree in an area comprising an occupied badger sett. By the time I got there, the hounds, after crashing through various bramble clumps, had gone on to pastures new.

A day or so before this event, an older man on a large wheeled bicycle had been cycling round the perimeter path, where several regular dog walkers also noticed that most, if not all, the badger and fox holes had been brushed clean of the leaves around their entrances, with leaves being left in piles nearby. Whether this man was anything to do with the hunt, I do not know, but the personnel gates into the wood are "kissing" type gates, which do not provide entry for bikes and one never normally sees bike riders there.

So, how is it that the trail layer was laying a trail in a wood from which the Hunt had been banned, perhaps along the various holes which had been cleared? And, does digging out foxes from badger setts also form part of trail hunting.

Was this trail hunting which we were witnessing or just hunting, as before, under a different name? Perhaps the Hunt personnel could enlighten us - the general public.

And, regarding the dug area - on inspection the following morning, a very strong smell of fox was emanating from the back filled hole under a fallen tree towards the edge of the occupied badger sett.

Name and address supplied.

Dear Editor,

In 2026 St John Ambulance celebrates the 40th anniversary of its National Cadet of the Year competition, recognising four decades of young people who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to learning lifesaving skills and serving their communities.

That journey often begins through St John Ambulance’s Badgers and Cadets programmes, where young people from the age of five learn first aid, build resilience and develop a practical understanding of helping others.

Readers interested in youth opportunities with St John Ambulance - whether that is for their children or as a potential Youth Leader or Helper - can find out more at www.sja.org.uk/get-involved/young-people

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Munday

Chief Commissioner, St John Ambulance

Decoupling gas and electricity

Dear Editor,

Lowering energy bills is a fundamental goal of building a modern energy system. To ensure that this occurs we need to think carefully when making market interventions. If we overhaul how prices work without proper safeguards, investors may pull back from bringing capital to the very solutions we are depending on reduce energy prices.”

Direct market intervention can cause unintended outcomes which will be difficult to reverse. Distorted price signals are bad for consumers, producers, investors, and businesses as they can create gaps which require further intervention to address. We need to avoid a game economic whack-a-mole that ends up slowing the very investment and energy scale-up that the country needs to enable future competitiveness and security.

The issues we currently face on curtailment, grid economics and investment will remain. These are the issues we need to address. We welcome the engagement on Reformed National Price which the government has also announced and believe that this is the way forward. Without comprehensive market reform, where we can look at the whole picture and make some tough decisions, this proposal risks doing more harm than good.

Trevor Wills, CEO of Pulse Clean Energy