RICHARD RAWLINS, of Beacon Road, Kingswear, writes:

Concerns that South Hams Council is no longer fit for ­purpose, as expressed in the Chronicle on May 13 by Dartmouth Town Council, are shared by many residents of Kingswear.

The town council suggests: ‘Dartmouth is badly served after a number of recommendations have not been acted upon and in some cases ignored completely’ and is considering a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.

These concerns are reflected across the river Dart. A group of Kingswear residents reported the district council to the LGO in 2014, alleging maladministration in its approach to a controversial multistorey office block, built without planning consent at Kingswear station, a listed building in the Conservation Area. Had permission not been sought – and granted – retrospectively, the LGO would have found maladministration. The principal concern for many residents was the failure of ­district councillors to hold ­officers to account.

Recently the town council ‘had been unanimous in opposing vehicles parking on South Embankment’, but South Hams was allowing commercial traders to park there. All local district councillors – Jonathan Hawkins, Hilary Bastone and Rosemary Rowe – ‘had let this proposal go through despite knowing and agreeing to support the wishes of the town council’.

Kingswear has had comparable problems, with the same councillors recently failing to ‘call in’ for consideration by South Hams’ development ­control committee a controversial proposed development in the Conservation Area, of avowedly ‘industrial’ character, opposed by Kingswear Parish Council and others. They have yet to account for that failure.

Why district councillors are not more supportive of the ­wishes of residents should be explained. They should give proper account as a matter of urgency – and certainly before the next elections can offer an opportunity to have more responsive councillors, and before a complaint of maladministration is laid before the LGO.