I was absolutely appalled to read the outrageous comments made by Cllr Gina Coles following the recent success of the Woofstock UK festival held on Coronation Park.

Woofstock attracted hundreds of visitors who stayed in local hotels and B&Bs, including mine; ate in local restaurants, pubs and cafes; and frequented local shops.

The event provided a much-needed financial boost for many local businesses in what has been an unusually quiet year for Dartmouth, yet Cllr Coles merrily admits that she did a ‘rain dance’ in the hope that it would spoil the day.

Seemingly not happy with wanting local businesses to fail and visitors to have a dreadful stay, this ‘representative of Dartmouth’ and director of the visitor centre then proceeded to admit she was plotting ways to ruin it for everybody next year.

Thankfully, Cllr Coles is not ‘the voice of Dartmouth’ and is very much alone in her views.

Having spent years working hard to build up my dog-friendly business in the locality, I do, however, take severe umbrage at this individual abusing her position within the community to spout complete and utter nonsense that reflects nobody’s opinions but her own.

Whether Cllr Coles likes it or not, many visitors religiously pilgrimage to our town annually because of the dog-friendly nature of the area. Their dogs are their ‘children’ and travelling without them is quite simply not an option – albeit thankfully, unlike children, they aren’t likely to urinate in the hotel pool!

I am confident that I am far from alone in expressing my gratitude to the organiser for such a fabulous event and am very much looking forward to a repeat performance next year.

Lucy Willetts

Channel View Guest House

Stoke Fleming