IT beggars belief that the Isle of Portland is apparently being held to ransom in the 21st century by mineral extraction licences granted by Dorset County Council 57 years ago.

No one can be under any illusion that the whole community on the island and the matchless Jurassic Coast environment on the coastal strip between Southwell and Portland Bill is under direct threat from the proposed quarrying.

Tuesday evening's packed Portland Partnership meeting at the Portland Heights Hotel (with senior county council planners) is evidence of the concern.

Certainly, the 250 members of the public who had gathered to listen are a credit to the partnership's ability to publicise the event and a major indication of the concern that this threat represents to those who live here.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the stone companies who wish to exploit this finite and valuable resource. They weren't present on Tuesday. Are they stone deaf?

Clearly, any viable enterprise has to make a profit to survive, but not at the cost of the matchless environment that we and eco tourists enjoy.

It isn't just Southwell residents affected. Even under current circumstances, on average 350 lorry movements pass through Underhill on the A358 six days a week.

More would become unsustainable on the entirely inadequate island's roads infrastructure. These proposals have got to be stopped.

With the greatest possible respect to Tophill councillor Margaret Leicester, isn't it a little naïve to suggest that writing lots of individual letters to MP Jim Knight will change a thing?

Coun Leicester has a great deal more faith in our bankrupt political system than I have.

By the same token, Southwell Action Group will not stop the quarrying with only an Internet petition to the Prime Minister.

No major environmental campaign has ever succeeded in the UK or anywhere else on the planet, without first engaging the local community in a collective and militant (meaning a highly visible and determined series of direct actions) which receive maximum media exposure.

This is the only way to make the politicians and powerbrokers sit up and take notice. Being polite, sadly, doesn't always do it; an active campaign just might.

In all this, Portland Town Council should be asserting itself on behalf of the island, showing a positive style of leadership to those it professes to represent.

This is a fight for all the good things about living on Portland that its communities must unite to defend. This is a campaign that we dare not lose. The integrity of our island is at stake.

Richard Denton-White, Portland Town Councillor.