John McHale, of Carey Road, Dartmouth, writes: When I first came to Dartmouth, almost 50 years ago, it was a lovely little place, a bit of a backwater certainly, but a peaceful and charming place nonetheless. True, quite a few of the shops in town were shuttered and almost the only road into town was Victoria Road, but traffic was light and it was a pleasure to be able to drive onto a deserted Market Square. There were far fewer moorings in the river, and river traffic was considerably lighter. Walking around town was a lot easier and one rarely had to step into the road to avoid crowds. I met and made friends with quite a few local people, crab fishermen, craftsmen from Noss shipyard and local builders among them. Flooding was a bit of a problem when certain tidal and weather conditions combined, and standing at the bar in the Seale Arms with water lapping around ones ankles was not unknown, but I think it all added to the old world charm of the place. This is the place for me I thought, so I married a local gal – family going back generations – and together we raised a family here. But that was almost 50 years ago. The town has changed from those days, as indeed most other towns have, but the questions I would like to ask are – has the town changed too much and do we want it to change further? The town now, in my opinion, is already considerably overcrowded, especially in the summer months. Trying to access local shops can be a major struggle and, for those living in the town centre, the crowds, noise and litter problems must be an absolute nightmare. Now to cap it all, we have the Business Improvement District lot who want to increase trade even further. These people will tell you, I'm sure, that it is for the good of the town and that it will provide more jobs for local people. Maybe it will, but not very many jobs and almost certainly at minimal rates of pay. The truth of the matter is that those who will benefit the most from this are those same BID people who will line their own pockets while the town will be the loser, as even larger hordes of people descend upon it, increasing the noise litter and overcrowding. I know it is impossible to turn the clock back 50 years, but do we really have to turn this beautiful town into a mini version of Torquay. The vast majority of the people in this town, probably about 80 per cent of the town's population, are not running businesses or involved in the tourist trade. Is it not about time some attention was paid to what they would like?