Uselessness and incompetence

1) They have failed to keep, or attract any major sporting events in the city, eg Volvo Ocean Race, Clipper Race, Balloon Festival etc.

2) They have learned no lessons from the chaos in November 2013 when three cruise ships and road works conspired to cause traffic chaos, because last Friday five cruise ships and the same road works caused even more chaos and misery.

3) The state of the roads in general are terrible and surely must rank among the worst of any major citiy in the UK. In 2010 Balfour Beatty were awarded a tenyear £100 million contract to maintain the roads to an acceptable condition. What do they do for this rolling contract of £10 million per annum (just under £27,400 per day!) Anyone see them out and about doing general maintenance?

Beware of Portsmouth Dockyard reductions, and perhaps the availabilty of deep water berths and see how the future-looking Portsmouth Council will eye up the Southamptoin cruise trade, as they did with the Cross Channel Ferry traffic 30 years ago, building a great motorway (M275) and road access direct to the port in Portsmouth and Southampton learned no lessons then and apparently no lessons since.

What on earth do visitors from cruise ships, or elsewhere, think when they arrive in our city? So little that the ships’ passengers are bussed to neighbouring cities like Winchester, Salisbury, even Portsmouth for the historic dockyards. We have nothing of value to offer. The SeaCity Museum is in the wrong place, hard to visit, difficult to park and miles from the port or waterfront area.

Where is the forward thinking vision except for more and more blocks of flats?

RICHARD G GEARY, Hythe.