I write from the ‘not-quite-managing’ dark underbelly of Dartmouth. You know, ‘those people’ – the ones who don’t really fit in with the image of Dartmouth. No red trousers, not on any of the committees, don’t go to the regatta ball for God’s sake… I mean, what on earth do we do?

Well, mostly we stay in with our family. We amuse ­ourselves and watch the tv, mainly because we can’t afford to go out or shop in Dartmouth.

The conversion of Lloyds Bank into Jack Wills is, for the majority of families in Dartmouth, just another shop we can’t afford to buy anything from, along with Henri Lloyd, Musto and all the rest of them.

There is no real competition in Dartmouth and hence the prices are way beyond the purses of ‘normal’ people. In one establishment, you can pay £12 for a pint of beer and a glass of wine – how often in a week do you think I can afford to do that?

For the families struggling to live here year round, with kids who have no future here other than minimum-wage jobs, why don’t we encourage shops that we, the other people of Dartmouth, can afford to shop in? Let’s have a Wetherspoons, let’s have a Primark, and yes, let’s have a pound shop.

Dear God, I can hear the knees knocking in those red trousers.

By the way, before people assume I’m a sofa-dwelling ne’er-do-well, I am a full-time, employed, tax-paying, law-abiding citizen.

I look forward to hearing what people think.

Phil Turner

Dartmouth Road

Stoke Fleming