May I add my comment on the views of John Neimer in his reply to Dave White about the Dorset flag (Letters, May 13)?

Arms were awarded to Dorset County Council, the organisation, and it alone. The council's arms are its and it cannot delegate responsibility for their use to anyone else. It's just not a question of who pays for the council's activities: facts are facts.

As the Flag Institute - consisting of some of the worlds leading flag experts - makes plain, a flag should be simple: simple enough for a child to be able to reproduce it easily.

Coats of arms are usually far too complex for this, and the council's arms are a case in point. A flag using the council's arms would be hard to recognise at distance and probably expensive to produce.

Surely there is some relevance in the fact that St. Wite's bones have survived the ravages of all sorts of historical upheavals. She is a powerful reminder of the timelessness of the Dorset landscape and Dorset identity.

Lastly, if the Dorset County Council arms already are the county flag, why is the chairman of DCC running a contest?

Stephen Coombs.

(responsible for suggesting St. Wite's Cross).

Dorsetman, resident in Sweden.