RAY BRIDGES, of Clarence Street, Dartmouth, writes:

I should like to put in a plea to all the businesses that have paid money into the now closed Dartmouth Business Improvement District, not to seek what will be a small ­individual rebate, but to use the remaining lump sum to improve Dartmouth’s South Embankment for visitors and residents alike.

Walking along the South Embankment is not an uplifting experience. It is a hotchpotch of 11 ugly, octagonal sentry box-sized hoardings, mostly plastered with Greenway posters; 65 wooden benches strewn along its length; and ugly rubbish bins that pedestrians and joggers have to dodge. There is an old mine to remind us yet again about war. The whole area at the entrance to the town pontoon is a mess.

By contrast, the cared-for Royal Avenue Gardens have a beautiful marble sculpture – Piscatorie (Fishing) – given by Mr Finch Ingram in 1950 and an attractive fountain provided by the Old Dartmothians. Dartmouth needs more of this quality and style.

The South Embankment should be one of Dartmouth’s showpieces and certainly not have cars or vans allowed on it. We can at least clear up the untidy, obstacle-strewn Embankment, and the unused BID funds could pay for something attractive and cheerful to be installed.

It would make it pleasant to walk along, certainly be attractive to visitors and would leave a constructive and positive reminder about the BID.

Dartmouth has a lot of ­fascinating history to offer ­visitors, places such as Bayards Cove, and an original 1726 Newcomen engine, which kick-started the Industrial Revolution, but you wouldn’t know it from landing at the cluttered Embankment.

South Hams Council, please think constructively about Dartmouth.