N Wyer Wadman, of Townstal Road, Dartmouth, writes:

I am very surprised to see that you have not received more letters regarding the above subject. As a catering establishment in the centre of Dartmouth, in our third season we have had the worse regatta in our time. We know that we are not the only ones. Long established restaurants and cafes suffered this week. Not only was there a huge number of catering vans, but even a coffee van in our direct area - coffee being one of our main selling points!

Do the Regatta committee not realise that for the majority of businesses in the town that Regatta week is/should be our main earning week of the whole year. They ask the businesses for sponsorship but if they are taking away our business by allowing all the outside catering in, we will not be wanting to sponsor them. We pay very high rents & rates to reside in Dartmouth, but have to sustain ourselves through very long winters.

I am not looking forward to this Autumn, I believe we will be seeing a number of casualties within this town and the number of empty units will rise significantly. The economic climate has unfortunately now reached us in the far South West and we need to look to helping each other in this very difficult time.

The Regatta committee really must look at whether the town really requires 'cheap jacks' or perhaps it is now time to reassess what we really do want from our town regatta.