Madam, I write in response to the three letters that you published in your edition of August 13th, under the headline 'Keep Market House as it is'. I was pleased that Mrs Partridge enjoyed my piece on Asset Transfers, as despite all previous publicity, I am still finding people in the town who are unaware of the issues. The following thoughts are my personal views, though I hope that many, if not all, other Town Councillors might agree with me. The first point I would like to make is that if the Town Council had decided not to accept the transfer of the Market House from the County Council, the Market House would by now have remained shut for the last six months. It is only because of the tremendous support that we have had from Ross Town residents and Council Tax payers that we have been able to re-open the Market House. My second point is that the Town Council is delighted that Mary Sinclair Powell is making such a success of her occupation of the Market House. However the Town Council has made a decision to offer the Market House space to the Courtyard Arts Centre in the medium term to operate an arts and crafts centre and this was the subject of an article in last week's Gazette. We did this because the Courtyard's proposal seemed to be innovative and exciting. The Courtyard is the premier arts destination in the county and this seemed to us to offer the potential of an exciting and once in a lifetime opportunity for the town. I acknowledge that we might have taken a wrong decision. We are in sense making all of this up as we go along. A year ago, the Town Council had only two part time members of staff and we are now being given huge additional responsibilities. However I have always said that if we get things wrong and that becomes obvious, then we simply have to try something else. Your correspondents were all basically saying that we must keep Mary and her particular tourist and heritage "offer". It is precisely because the Town Council valued Mary's services that we were delighted to offer her space in the Corn Exchange, before she moved to the Market House. In the future, we will I am sure be talking about alternatives, which might for example, include shared space in the Market House or the Old Chapel. If any of your correspondents, or other residents, wish to speak further about these issues, I am at the end of a telephone line and would be delighted to discuss it further, 01989 563299. Councillor Chris Bartrum