Dear Editor:- The National Trust Amoeba – In reply to David John’s response to my letter dated April 11th. From knee-high to a grasshopper I’ve always been under the impression that the National Trust, a charity, relies on donations plus the income from its National Trust Enterprise Ltd to cover the costs of what it owns. In 2010 its total income amounted to £406 million and 61,000 volunteers worked for the trust between 2009/10. The National Trust Enterprise Ltd received £54.7 million from its stately homes, gift shops, restaurants and holiday lets. Therefore, with Porthclais in mind, why shouldn’t the National Trust pay for the upkeep of this port instead of leaving it up to a ‘club’ of locals to introduce an exorbitant charge of £5 to launch every boat from a slipway which needs no maintenance. Moreover, why should the general public pay £5 to launch their boats from the beach (which is crown property) instead of the concrete slipway? And why is a barrier placed across that part of the beach too? The concrete slipway on the left side is all that is needed. It amounts to monopolisation of the beach, which, I repeat, is crown property.

These underhanded extra costs are unreasonable and unnecessary. Let’s be thankful that our gracious Queen Elizabeth II owns the beaches otherwise we’d probably be charged £5 every time we go for dip. Imagine a family on holiday for a fortnight launching a boat from Porthclais for 10 days of their time spent here. It would amount to 50 quid. Such charges would certainly make them think twice about coming to St David’s again which means that holiday accomodation and shops would lose out in the long run.

The National Trust is doing very well indeed from the revenues it receives and shouldn’t evade financing the maintenance costs for what it has acquired from the generosity of donors and visitors. Like the Forestry Commision it has grown into a giant amoeba enveloping vast areas of land and property by using the big stick of environmentalism in cahoots with the Mother Earth fraternity that places the welfare of animals above that of humans.

Mahalah Fransham St Davids