Old postcards of Torquay

Thank you Tubbs, nice to learn that the spirit of apartheid will be applied to us revenue earning Grockels when we come down.

I'm looking forward to the new park benches labelled "Locals" - "Grockels", advantageous parking spaces a few yards from the beach reserved for the disabled,locals whilst the "Grocks" get Newton Abbot Racecourse; and don't forget to segregate the beaches will you!

Perhaps if we agree to all sit to gether in our own part of the buses we'll be allowed to use them as well?

Nelson Mandela for Mayor!

In true Merse style, you have gone and done what you do so often and that is to try and twist what really is being said. Those that live in Torbay, know and understand that we need to have visitors to the Bay, so many jobs and businesses depend on people coming here and spending their money.

The plain fact is that life in the summer months is so much different from the winter months, we have to deal with so much more traffic for a start. Our streets that we can walk freely in the winter, become a battle ground as we fight our way down them, battling with groups of foreign students and family's who do not keep proper control of their children.

We find the places we use in the winter months like restaurants and cafes, are not the same welcoming places we know in the winter and we notice the price increases we have to pay, because visitors are in town.

I have stopped using two such places, they go overboard to get the locals in during the winter months, they need us then to keep them going. Sadly some want to cast the locals aside during the summer as they pack in the holiday makers and put up their prices.

I'm sure Merse you have places you take your family in London, that is far away from the tourist hot spots, places where you can enjoy some space and peace, surly after working hard all week, we all deserve that.

The tourists have lots of places to go in Torbay, the ones they go to will more than often we set up to not only attract them there, but offer what the tourist is looking for, while on holiday in Torbay.

I see no problem with the locals having a few places that they can escape too, places that as Bev said, we do not need or want to see Ice cream vans fighting to get trade, places where we can unwind and relax in the beauty and peace of parts of Torbay that we may just want to keep secret anyway.

I make you right Barton, but the other day I was walking on Hampstead Heath when I got down on all fours to re-tie my little girl's shoe lace. With that an old dear sat on me exclaiming to her husband "Come and sit here Bert, there's an empty seat at last!"

Outnumber the living? depends on how you quantify living I guess!

Andy that is why I think such benches are special and why we should have them. Its now so normal for people to be cremated and graves are almost a thing of the past. Carol and I went to find the grave of my dear old Gran in Newton Abbot this year. Just being able to stand by it made me feel I was with my Gran.

How great to be able to have a bench with the name of a loved on it,to you it would be their bench and one would hope in a place that was special to them and maybe for you. To go there and sit on that bench must have the same effect as standing by a grave, only it would be so much better . You would be at a place that had happy memories, you can't have any for time spent in a graveyard.

The planned new Yeovil Town stadium, will be even further out than the current one, that is so easy to reach and drive to from most points in Somerset, the new one may well have a Hotel etc and is seen as the next step for a football club that has made such great progress over the last few years.It sure has not been held back by its stadium location.

That's all very well, but it is all diluting the essence of a match day.

The moving of clubs to anaemic locations that pander to the "drive in, drive out" mentality are conducive to the watering down of the atmosphere that detracts from the overall enjoyment of the stadium visit.

Take Yeovil as an example then...............a visit to the old Huish took one to the town centre with all it's attendant facilities - proper pubs, newsagents, betting shops, cafes. To step outside the new Huish Park you will find none of this and unless you are a club member, you are denied access to the plush facilities within just one side of the ground. Even the nearest pub is a fifteen minute hike away and it is one of those dreadful "estate" pubs - try getting a game of darts or pool in there on a match day.

To me, the most successful modern day stadium is The Emirates BECAUSE it's located in the traditional hinterland of the old ground with all it's periphery"essentials" for the old school football fans YET incorporating superb "in stadium" facilities for those fortunate enough to be able to afford the considerable outlay for them.

Develop these out of town stadiums and you change the very demography of the support. Take the ground out of the town and you soon lose the raucous, boisterous atmosphere easily transferred from the pubs and betting shops, the cafes and newsagents shops across the road with prissy little family outings that "pre-match" in the nearest MacDonalds, ToysRus or World of Leather emporiums that surround such remote "sportsparks" as Sixfields, The Reebok etc.

That's what the Everton fans are fighting against at the moment!

That's why I love Plainmoor and would take it over that "ground in a field" in Yeovil anytime.....................I can go in the Union down the road or Boots. I can eat in the Gulls Nest or Drakes not too far away. I can have a bet in William Hills on the way in and collect my winnings on the way out. It is a proper bloke's environment, not some silly little plastic "kit ground" where the kids can't sing without the promptings of a videotron screen. Where I can while away the hour before kick off talking crap in the pub instead of flicking sweets because there's nought else to do.

Further out than Huish Park? Jesus Christ they'll want to call the club Yeovil and Taunton United next!