AS a UKIP councillor, I should not be defending Dr Julian Lewis for not having his email public. But if a person has anything important, they require his help, then they should be willing to write a letter.

I know from personal experience just how easy it is to attend his weekly surgery in Cadnam, and that he will take positive action to resolve your problem.

Giving out his email will result in hundreds of emails from people too lazy to write and swamping him with frivolous issues, all of which he will, as a caring MP, have to reply to. There will also be thousands of spam emails, con tricks to sort from genuine ones.

I recently deleted 600 in one month, which is the reason if I have something to say in the Echo I write a letter, as I suspect there must be hundreds to wade through and could miss an important one.

Any reader of the Echo must know of the local issues he personally gets involved in.

COUNCILLOR PHILIP PEARCE-SMITH MBE, Southampton.