IF, ONE YEAR, the editor of the Herald Express decides to throw a party for all his regular letter writers and columnists, you might wonder if it would be a terribly uplifting or cheerful gathering.

As regular readers know, I rarely respond to the various letters having a go at me. I would not get much work done in the Town Hall if I felt obliged to respond to all of them.

The ones which amuse me the most are those from people I know to be in comfortable circumstances, with time on their hands (hence all their letters!) and written as though they know all the answers. In which case, why don't they put themselves forward when the time comes and run for election to Torbay Council or, better still, stand for mayor?

Another bunch who ought to know better are the various councillors, who have every opportunity to make a contribution at the Town Hall, but prefer to write in and find fault with their own council.

Of course I welcome debate and fully understand different councillors will have different points of view and priorities. But the performance of the council is a shared responsibility between all councillors. Instead we get councillors making the most of every opportunity to undermine good work. It must be terribly depressing for the officers and staff.

As I have pointed out before, a general theme of so many letters and articles is 'Torbay is pants… but don't you dare try to change anything'.

A good example of this mindset has been the hostile response to the competition to create a mascot to encourage better school attendance. These are the facts as I see them.

First, Torbay, along with Plymouth, has had a very poor record of school attendance over the years. At times we have been among the worst places in the entire country. In other words, what we have been doing so far has not worked.

Then we appoint an enthusiastic young officer, dedicated to turn things around. The competition which everybody is so keen to pass judgement upon is, in fact, the culmination of several hundred primary school pupils spending a lot of time and effort considering their designs and the message they are trying to get across: the importance of school attendance. I was genuinely impressed with the quality of the work I helped to judge.

The ensuing furore has also been a bit of a bonus. It has helped to keep this issue in the news for a few weeks, whereas previous reports have simply led to a few 'tut tut' comments and everybody has then forgotten all about it. Let's see if it works, and, frankly, what have we got to lose?

Another subject which excites regular comment is the state of the town centres and the type of shops which are opening up (or closing down).

From reading all the letters, you would think I sit in the Town Hall and can command who goes where. One classic letter a few months ago asked 'whose idea was it to open Waitrose at Plainmoor?'.

The only possible answer... it was Waitrose's idea (and I for one am very happy they decided to do so).

Of course, through our Town Centres Company we might make a pitch to a particular retailer to invest in the town, but the decision will be theirs.

At the moment there is a strong demand for value shops and supermarkets. People may turn their noses up at some of the names which are appearing on our high street, but it is all a question of supply and demand. It is surely better to have pound shops than empty shops?

Away from Crossways in Paignton and Union Street in Torquay, our three town centres now have fewer empty shops than many other places. Parts of Exeter are quite grim and a walk from the station along Queen Street, Newton Abbot, does little to put a smile on your face. The recession has not just hit Torbay and I often wonder who gets all the blame elsewhere?

Next, if some of the letters are enough to get you down, the various web comments are worse. At least the letter writers almost always give their names, so if time allows I could run round and ring their doorbells, give them a hug and try to persuade them life in Torbay is really not quite so awful.

With the web commentators, contact is impossible. They all hide behind anonymity. However, the same names (even if not real names) keep appearing and you realise there are not quite the army of commentators you first imagine.

Some of the names intrigue me and 'Ann of Preston' has a particularly majestic ring to it. One wonders if she is any relation to Anne of Cleves, perhaps? If she is who I think she might be, then maybe she would like to 'out' herself and we could have a grown-up debate about what is going on in the Town Hall now, compared with 10 years ago, when things were far from running smoothly.

Two more topics which are currently tickling the fancy, as it were, of both letter writers and web commentators, are the proposals for a children's play area on Paignton Seafront and the naming of the new Paignton Library and Community Hub.

To take the last topic first, it seems an upset over nothing. Whatever the official title turns out to be, I rather imagine people will simply call it 'the new library' in the same way my (unpaid) special political adviser always calls the vicar 'the new vicar' until he retires, at which point he becomes 'the old vicar' and the new vicar becomes 'the new vicar' for however long he stays in office.

As it happens, as Agatha Christie is the world's greatest selling author, beaten only by Shakespeare, it seems a sensible connection to name the new library after her: author, books, library, get it?

She had strong links with Torbay and South Devon, not just Torquay: she regularly visited the cinema in Paignton where she had her favourite 'box', was a generous benefactor to Galmpton School, worshipped at Churston Church and based one of her stories on Elberry Cove.

On the subject of the children's play area, I really would like to just confine myself to a comment on the tone of the numerous letters. Anybody would think the Community Partnership (they are leading the project, not the council) is proposing to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at this treasured spot.

As I understand it, the plan is for something similar (hopefully better!) than the facility at Teignmouth Seafront, which everybody raves about. It would take up less than half the space of the Central Green, leaving the much larger North Green, also the South Green, Preston Green and Torbay Park free for events. With a little good will and compromise I would have thought there was enough space to keep everybody happy.

Having got all that off my chest, I would like to finish this week's essay with thanks and appreciation to the Royal British Legion and all the service organisations who arranged and supported the various Remembrance events.

This year was especially poignant and there was a very strong attendance at the Poppy Appeal launch at St Andrew's Church in October, the Torquay and Paignton services on Remembrance Sunday, also the silence outside the Town Hall (attended this year by lots of school children) and the reinstated Festival of Remembrance at Central Church on November 11.

Some folks were unhappy with the absence of maroons, but I am told they are impossible to obtain. I would be happy to be proven wrong if somebody does know of a supply.

However, the main point is we do turn out, in increasing numbers each year, to remember those who have given their lives for our freedom including freedom of expression.

Freedom of expression, of course, includes all the letters, articles and comments in the Herald. I should therefore learn to just take it all on the chin and give thanks we live in a free society.

It would be a dull old world if we all agreed, all the time.