Caroline Skinner, of Britannia Ave, Dartmouth, writes:

It has to be said, that the paper's recent front page was disappointing.

Every year I like many, look forward to Dartmouth's regatta and even look forward to seeing wonderful pictures and write ups of our towns biggest annual event. I was to be disappointed by the front page write up to what was a truly wonderful regatta yet again this year.

I read your over-enthusiastic story 'The good,the bad and the plain ugly ... Regatta marred by death and violence ' and you made it sound like Dartmouth Regatta's last day had turned into a scene from some gang land film and that was so untrue. Any visitor who may have brought that issue and read that may have repacked their bags thinking our town wasn't safe to stay in.

Yes there were a couple of incidents, sadly there is always a few that can't conduct themselves in a proper manner and after a few drinks loose all self control, and yes a young man sadly lost his life, and my condolences go out to his family and friends, but you can't blame the regatta for any of this, when you consider the thousands that come to enjoy all that Dartmouth and the regatta has to offer, your reported 6 arrests was very small in comparison. Surely page 23 should have been selected as front page, such lovely pictures that were hidden towards the middle of the paper?

For those that have to work throughout the regatta look forward to seeing pictures of events that they have missed and read how close some came to winning & loosing their events, but alas we got the front page headline 'the good, the bad and the plain ugly.' Come on, you can do better than that ! And then the following weeks front page, your head line story 'regatta alcohol ban call,' Here we go again !

Mr Chicks view on Dartmouth's regatta, of which I feel he's not a fan of any of our large events, or is it an excuse to get a bit of free advertising for his business? It would be impossible to police a drinking ban outside at his proposed 6pm ban. We don't have enough police cover over the regatta period as it is, due to all the cut backs.

As for the litter in the town, well unfortunately with great numbers of people in a small area, usually results in lots of litter.

I have noticed over the last couple of years that the council have not put in place the very large Industrial wheelie bins that we used to throw our rubish in, I bring black bin bags out with me for our fun-filled Friday when we cheer on our family and friends in their whaler races, and always collect up our rubbish and place it by the bins, though they usually fill quickly they do get emptied regularly and the pubs themselves have staff collecting the empty plastic glasses around their premises.

Our road sweeping teams work their socks off over our towns large events, whether its regatta, music festival or new years eve, you can usually pick up a few accessories on your way home for next years costumes.

And talking of which, Mr Chicks' comments on the gladiators he refers to in Market street, was probably the fancy dressers that came over from Torbay via a pleasure cruiser, they were here on a charity raising cruise!

So Mr Chick if you really don't enjoy our wonderful regatta maybe you should rent a quiet cottage up on the moors for a few days ! Or stay and if the issue with the rubbish really bothers you, maybe you could slip on a florescent jacket, pick up a broom and volunteer your services! So I stand on the boat float before my beloved town and I raise my plastic glass (which I will responsibly dispose) and I would like to thank the regatta committee and it's volunteers, the sponsors, those who put a pound or two in the collection tins and to those who entered the numerous events making yet another fantastic regatta. Roll on next year, cheers !