I heard the sound of loud crunching as I walked down South Street and discovered the reason was the grabber vehicle was being driven over a pile of planks at the top of the beach.

As I watched it grabbed a pile of wood, much of which splintered as it was dumped, anything but carefully, into a waiting lorry.

All this wood, now being smashed to nothing more than firewood, could have been put to so much better use had it been carefully removed from the beach.

We've seen the attitude of officialdom at its very worst by this sad affair.

Just to deny the public access to the wood so that it could have done some good to people in West Sussex, the seafront has been barricaded off while heavy-handed demolition men with their anything but tender vehicles are busy smashing much of it to pieces.

We are told if we take even one plank from the beach we're stealing and risk a £2,500 fine.

Yes, officialdom is right, the wood doesn't belong to us and taking it without permission is stealing.

But isn't officialdom, in all its glory, making Britain boring!

How much better it would have been if someone with vision announced to the public that Worthing, Arun and Adur faced an emergency and needed help.

If the public had been asked to help move wood from high water mark to the top of the beach, that old bulldog spirit, which was so evident between 1939 and 1945 would have come to the fore.

People in their thousands would have volunteered.

For their troubles they could have taken a few planks of wood.

Just imagine the benefits.

Firstly, the clean-up operation would cost less.

A few hours' exercise would do the population a great deal of good and people would have some wood to repair fences or to burn on open fires.

The volume of wood scattered along the beaches would board lofts in thousands of homes, lifting them at least a notch in the HIPS ratings and doing its bit to help cut emissions and slow down climate change.

The problem with any kind of officialdom is that it attracts those who want to be restrictive – they would seize upon health and safety to say that removing wood from the beach would be a terrible risk to us all and better left to the professionals!

Oh to have some of that old bulldog spirit back in Britain.

What do you think?

Should the public have been allowed to clear the beaches?

Let us know, comment in the space below or email letters@worthingtoday.co.uk