LAST week in my dentist?s waiting room, I leafed through a copy of a Devon magazine ? as you do ? and was pleased to see that not only was it a recent edition ? September 2007? but also carried an article on Okehampton. It was a good little write up, complete with photographs and advertisements, singing the praises of a bustling market town on the northern slopes of Dartamoor. Well no, that?s not quite right, is it? Bustling we may be, but market town we ain?t. All right, I am aware that a few farmers pitch their tents at the bottom of St James Street on Saturday mornings, but that hardly gives us licence to call ourselves a market town, does it? The magazine goes on to say that the market hall is open four days a week from 8 until 4. Oh no, it isn?t! Despite our ancient charter and to our eternal shame, we closed down our market hall and gave the traders their marching orders, together with the ever popular monthly auction sale ? this last now happily housed at Fatherford. Our once proud market hall has become a cinema with a tacky plastic sign over the door. But then, we?re quite good at this sort of thing in Okehampton, aren?t we? Those with memories long enough will recall a livestock market more or less where Waitrose now stands. That really was bustling. But someone decided we didn?t want noisy, smelly animals in Okehampton, so we sent them off to Hatherleigh and put in their place a huge car park where visiting coaches could ? and did! ? pull in for a comfort stop and for their passengers to sample the delights of a little market town. Not any more. Now, all we have is Somerfield, Waitrose and Lidl, unless you consider our gloomy Charter Hall (what charter?) an attraction. All is not lost, however. On the front page of the Times (October 4) an article called for suggestions on what to do with our Old Mill which, we are told, is at the heart of the town and with ample parking facilities. Well, here?s an idea. Why not make it into a market hall? Then we really could call ourselves a market town once more ? instead of a supermarket town. Richard G Williamson Cranmere Castle Road Okehampton