I was quite amused reading Paul-John Harris’s letter published in The Argus on August 27 “Save ferry, not the beach”.

The beach has nothing to do with the loss of the ferry. The beach was used quite safely when Newhaven was a thriving port.

Mail boats, coal boats, aggregates and blue star boats would use the port on a regular basis and not be affected by people on the sand.

The reason the ferry will go if it goes and is not another bluff is because the French government are going to withdraw subsidies. They will do this, beach or no beach.

Newhaven’s benefits from the ferry are very limited. How many people travelling on the ferry actually visit Newhaven and spend any money in the town?

How many people from Newhaven are employed to work on this ferry? A few cleaners and a few to tie up and untie it.

As for bringing in bigger ferries and enlarging the port, that is pie in the sky. The French owners have let the harbour become rundown and derelict.

The beach was given village green status and the French owners were to reopen it but, in my opinion, decided they were above the law.

Do you think they would have got away with what they have done in Dieppe?

People did visit the beach in droves and they spent money in the town.

Also, it was a peaceful protest and there would have been no risk of injury if the fence had not been put up in the first place. In fact, it is blocking a public right of way.

Newhaven hasn’t got much going for it – Lewes District Council has seen to that – so let us at least have a beach and perhaps a toilet.

J A Holman, Gibbon Road, Newhaven