There’s an old saying: “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”

Isn’t it about time somebody explained this to Lucy Ball and her continuing efforts to flog that dead horse, the Business Improvement District or BID.

Unsurprisingly, many traders of Exmouth chose by way of their democratic right to give a big “no, thank you” to the BID idea.

No amount of carrots on sticks with promises of one-off payments by Sandy Bay, Tesco or any other big business is going to fool anyone, simply because that’s all they are, one-off payments, and who’s left to pick up the bill after that?

And, certainly calling people who do not want anything to do with this ridiculous and unfair nonsense “freeloaders” can only be described as a bad idea.

Mr T Irvin

Victoria Road, Exmouth.