Malcolm MacIntosh, artistic director, The Inn Theatre Company, writes:

Regarding the possible sale of Dartmouth's Guildhall, until recently, the Inn Theatre Company regularly used the ballroom as its rehearsal space for the annual Dartmouth Shakespeare Week. However, when we approached the council to book our normal rehearsal space last year we found that it had changed the conditions of hire, increased the charges and were not very helpful or accommodating to our flexible needs.

We therefore contacted Dartmouth Academy, and in contrast found the staff to be very helpful and the cost was less expensive. As a result, the Guildhall lost a very lucrative source of income. I wonder how many other groups have been put off by their attitude?

Although ours is a community event which is featured as one of the main tourist attractions by the TIC, and which has raised many thousands of pounds for local charities, we do not expect any preferential treatment from the council.

However, we found its attitude to be less than helpful to us last year and, as the academy has shown, it doesn't have to be like that. We got the impression that rather than encouraging us to use their facilities, it was unwilling to be flexible to our needs. We formed the opinion the council was hoping that we would go away.

Was the council trying to build a case for selling the Guildhall by declaring that no one uses it any more?

We are about to book our rehearsal space for this year's Twelfth Night and I am about to contact... the academy. Now there's a surprise!