Madam, I can agree with 90% of Councillor Richard Mayo's letter in last week's Gazette. Ross is a wonderful town and has a tremendous variety of excellent shops and businesses.

Since first getting elected in May 2007 I have always tried to talk Ross up, accentuating the positive rather than running our town down as some people seem always to prefer. However, where I differ from Cllr Mayo is that I would go further and say that I believe that all the traders and businesses contribute to our lovely town and they should all be thanked for their efforts. Ross also is lucky in having so many community minded people who give their time and efforts freely to make our town even better. Thanks to you all, you know who you are.

Councillor Chris Bartrum