HAVING my office in the centre of Newton Abbot does make life easier and I do not understand how my predecessor coped with having an office on Brunel Road!

As my office is on Queen Street, it also gives me a fairly good idea of what is happening in the town as well.

Over the last few weeks I have been asking people about the future of the town centre and how they believe it should develop. There are a wide range of views but one of these is constant and that is they see the town centre as very important and want to see it flourish.

The recession is having an impact on local trade but the town does seem to be faring better than other shopping centres in Devon. There are fewer closed shops than Torquay, for instance. If we wish it to continue to prosper then we need to continue to use it and perhaps use the supermarkets a little less often.

ONE local business that is prospering is International Dance Supplies whose offices and warehouse are on the Brunel Estate.

Run by the dynamic Anne Walker, they are continuing to expand and have just opened up an office in the United States so as to start exporting their range of dance supplies over there.

On Friday night she hosted an International Markets Forum for local businesses looking to export. It was a fascinating seminar and good to see so many local businesses looking to grow.

THE character of Teignmouth is certainly determined in part by having a port. It transforms the town from just another West Country seaside resort into something a little more earthy.

The Harbour Commission is responsible for running the port, dredging the channel and so on. I see them about once a year although we correspond far more often than that.

The Commission has changed radically over recent years and undertakes more tasks itself rather than using sub contractors. One new change is the port using satellite radar to see ships coming into and out of the estuary.

I was being shown this new piece of equipment and looking at the tankers and cargo ships moored in the bay when I had a phone call from a London radio station asking to interview me about these ships in the bay as they had featured in a national newspaper. Strange coincidence or what!

FRIDAY afternoon is always busy and I always seem to try to cram in more than is possible to do.

Abbotskerswell Parish Council came over to see me at lunchtime to talk about various concerns including the problems local residents have with Ruby Farm. It is an on-going saga that the county council and Environment Agency are involved in sorting out, including taking them to court for various breaches of regulation.

Passing the village hall in Bishopsteignton the other night, a few notes of a familiar tune drifted on the breeze.

As the notes came together to form a tune, I heard the definite clunk of timber on timber leaving me in no doubt Grimspound Border were close at hand. Sure enough, on sticking my head through the door, eight men turned and clattered wood on wood hoping not to get any flesh in between.

Morris dancing has a bad name in some circles — Sir Arnold Bax joked that you should try everything once but incest and folk dancing!

But travel abroad and British holiday makers pack into coaches and travel for miles for a 'local' folk dance. Little men with big bellies even queue to join a 'line' in Greek tavernas, but that is when we are abroad.

We applaud them for keeping alive their traditions but think ours started in the 50s with the 'Twist'. The Grimspound Border are well worth supporting so do go and see them and perhaps give it a try. They have great fun. Call Gill or Phil on 01626 779795 or 07796 414313.

ONE of the events I attended in Dawlish last week was a reception in the Manor House for piper Bill Millin who famously piped the commandos ashore on the Normandy beaches on D-Day.

It is now proposed to raise a statue to him in Normandy, and a group of French pipers and the sculptor came over to launch the appeal to fund the project.

They hope to have it ready for next year's D-Day commemoration on June 6 which is a tall order but quite possible. I wish them every success.

ON A positive note, I had a good meeting with Mark Hopwood who is the newish managing director of First Great Western.

He made a special journey to Newton Abbot to see me which was very beneficial as we could look at some of the issues.

The good news is that the dreadful local trains (142s) which were dumped on us by the Department of Transport are to be replaced next year by 150s which apart from being a bit smarter also have greater capacity.

The other positive is that FGW will provide a service in lieu of the South West Trains (SWT) service that is now to terminate at Exeter.

It is still not as convenient as the SWT service but at least there will still be a service even if people have to change. The SWT's cut was again a requirement of the Department of Transport who wanted an increased service between Exeter and Waterloo and the only way to do that, with no new rolling stock being available, was to terminate the service at Exeter.

Some issues are still on-going such as overcrowding on the trains in the morning and afternoon, particularly those taking school children to and from Torre, as is also the reduction of service during the winter period which has filled my post bag in recent weeks.

The resolution to both of these rests with the Government who have just cancelled an order for 202 new diesel trains as they are now committed to further electrification of the network.

So our new trains will be second hand and will only come when other parts of the country go electric in about 2016!