While Tony Mernagh's article on Toad's Hole Valley was quite interesting, the reactions of the three councillors responding to it in your letters page were rather more so (Letters, November 10).

We have the recently-elected Councillor Simon Williams (Green Party) basically saying that unless you are elected you can't have an opinion - much less have it published in a newspaper.

We have Councillor Averil Older (Conservative) apparently complaining that Mr Mernagh has changed jobs (bizarre) and, finally, Councillor Vanessa Brown (Conservative) admitting Toad's Hole Valley has been in and out of the National Park "like a yo-yo" which I think was the point of the article, wasn't it?

I wonder if any of them think about what they are saying before they put pen to paper.

-Herbert Gray, Hove