Some people in Dartmouth were so opposed to the launch of a charity foodbank to help the poorest people in the town that they warned it would ruin the tourist trade.

Others claimed they would just be helping the workshy spend their money on booze.

And volunteers were warned they would have 'down and outs' banging on their doors at midnight.

'There was a lot of opposition,' revealed Dartmouth FoodBank chairman David Gent as he outlined the hurdles organisers had to clear to set up the first foodbank operation in the South Hams 14 months ago.

'I was told that there was no need for a foodbank in Dartmouth. Just try telling that to our clients,' Mr Gent told the public at Dartmouth's annual town meeting.

'I was told it would ruin the tourist trade, that we would be feeding all the workshy and allowing them to spend their money on alcohol and told you'll have down and outs knocking on your doors at midnight.'

But he added: 'What I have met is an awful lot of people who need help. Single mothers who don't know where they are going to get their next meal. I have never met anyone who is workshy.'

And he warned: 'We have seen a major increase in people needing help over the last year and our customers are getting younger.'

The foodbank opens once a week on Wednesdays between noon and 2pm at Dartmouth Guildhall to distribute food items.

It aims to extend its operations into Kingswear next month and is hoping to also organise an outreach operation in Townstal.

More on this story in this week's Dartmouth Chronicle