HELEN Lawes has written the following letter in reply to Mr Steve Talling's letter in the last issue of the Courier:

I HAVE read your letter in the Crediton Courier, in which you have taken great pains to "set the record straight", explaining in great detail your difficulties regarding tax exemptions and what the Downes Trust has needed to do to qualify for these.

I am pleased that you have followed previous press coverage, which must have left you in no doubt about the strength of local opposition to the "Western" route'. I will not, therefore, reiterate much of this, but will take up some of the points raised in your letter.

You are probably correct in saying that "historically, the relationship between the family (the Bullers) and Crediton has been strong." I think the salient word here is "historically".

Times have moved on and you may be surprised at how few local people these days have much, if any, knowledge of the Buller family history, could name the present incumbents or last attended a function at Downes.

It is true that Downes is the only historic house in Crediton open to the public – not surprising in a town of this size – but I venture to suggest that the numbers of visitors each year would hardly add much to our traffic problems, although they may well encounter some once the Tesco development is up and running.

I am sure it is, indeed, a very expensive business to maintain Downes House and grounds, but we are all having proportional problems in that direction at present and those whose property values would be blighted by the "Western" route can hardly be expected to have a lot of sympathy, particularly when this road would inevitably bring with it even more noise and air pollution.

Any relief it might bring will soon be more than taken up by the huge increase in traffic brought by Tesco, for which this route would be totally useless, with most of the customer base coming from the town and from the villages beyond.

This unfortunate proposal has caused a huge amount of unnecessary anger and resentment towards the Estate, more than negating any perceived "strong relationship", which would certainly be damaged beyond repair.

The town was quite prepared to accept Downes on a comfortable, "live and let live" basis, some people obviously being more interested than others in its place in the community.

However, if the Estate is prepared to see yet another road dumped on the long-suffering residents of the East Town, they must expect the consequences.

Crediton people feel that they are rapidly becoming disenfranchised and that their so-called "elected representatives" are putting the interests of the Estate before those of the electorate.

This proposal is causing hurt and anger which would not easily be healed. I hope, very much, that a way will be found to relieve Crediton's traffic problems without resorting to this highly unpopular scheme.

Helen Lawes

The Pound

Mill Street

Crediton

EX17 3AA