Sir, It is now nearly six months since the Morecambe Bay cockling disaster, which took the lives of 23 people.

This was a terrible tragedy, one of the largest losses of life in the workplace in this country ever.

Most people would think that government would act quickly and move to regulate the industry to ensure safety for those involved in cockling and to make the environmental impact for local residents more bearable Yet it seems that the loss of 23 lives is not enough to make the government act.

You have to ask what is their excuse - they can rush through legislation when they want to.

Mr Blair and his cronies are already making time to rush through legislation on the Hunting bill.

It seems that foxes have more respect from this government than people working in the Bay.

Major incidents are still occurring - some 16 separate ones linked to the cockling industry since the tragedy back in February.

What response have we had from the Labour government, Labour county council and Labour city council? Labour have done what they do best, organise a few meetings, whizz up a Junior Minister who said the right things and then do absolutely nothing.

I believe that more meetings for the great and good are being organised but Morecambe Bay doesn't need hot air, it needs action.

I have sat through two of these meetings already and listened to all the relevant agencies such as HSE, Sea Fisheries and Immigration making their excuses as to why they cannot act.

Frankly we need to knock their heads together.

James Airey Kirkby Lonsdale