Simon Howes, of Victoria Road, Dartmouth, writes: I'm much obliged to Sarah Lewis of Wiltshire for disparaging one of our town councillors in such a forceful manner. It's certainly encouraging that Ms Lewis does a significant amount of her shopping in town. For those of us who live here, we have to balance maintaining what attracts visitors with the reality of going about our daily lives. Indeed, we do shop at Tesco, Poundland, Toys R Us etc, but as the town is simply too small to accommodate them of necessity, we make long journeys to do so, since we can't sustain ourselves from restaurants, gift shops and galleries. It's unfair for her to criticise someone in such derogatory terms. The town, district and county councillors are facing challenging and difficult times, as are we all. Perhaps it would be better for Ms Lewis to move here and to be part of the solution than to pour scorn from afar on those who are trying.