ABOUT a year ago I sent a photograph showing the superb docking facilities for cruise ships bringing prosperity to the once very deprived Caribbean and asked how much longer Falmouth had to wait for dredging to allow larger cruise ships to enter our harbour.

Very little progress has been made as the annual report of the Falmouth harbour authorities makes clear. I don't want readers to think I spend all my time on cruise ships but two weeks ago I saw at least five of them docked at Civitavecchia as their passengers flocked into Rome - yes eating drinking and touring the sights but bringing work to the port, to the city of Rome and the nation. It is the same throughout the Mediterranean - Marseille, Livorno, Majorca - where they have woken up to the economic benefit that cruising brings and are providing superb berthing facilities. Can Natural England and all the other green snag merchants ever get it?

Keith McDowall,
Mulberry Quay