MP Conor Burns as a member of the Culture Media & Sport Select Committee asked the Culture Secretary to reassess the impact of Navitus on the status of the Jurassic Coast (Echo 22 Jan).

Having watched the proceedings online, it was quite evident that Mr Burns was not checking if the World Heritage status is safe. Rather, he is purely concerned with stopping Navitus.

That Burns seeks only his preferred answer was perhaps shown with a slip of the tongue.

Burns said: “I have tried this through the form of an adjournment debate but despite having given the answers, sorry the questions in advance, the answers were less than satisfactory.”

It is true that the IUCN assessment of Navitus much quoted by Mr Burns at the Select Committee sounds very damning and that the IUCN is a grown-up Geneva-based organisation. But this IUCN report is a dreadful piece of work. Every point it makes is either plain wrong or highly questionable which with such brief coverage is also plain wrong. Mr Burns would do better reading the words of UNESCO who are the decision-makers here.

UNESCO says of the Jurassic Coast ‘the wider setting of the property is well protected through the existing designations and national and local planning policies.’ Yet it is the operation of those planning policies that Mr Burns is calling into question.

DR MARTIN ROGER, Bloxworth Road, Poole