IN the Times (April 24), I note Tavistock Town Council proposed in these slightly better but still austere times, that it is imperative that the tarmac be re-surfaced all around the pannier market. They duly voted on this and then approved its work. Having had a look at the area, I fail to understand the need to spend tens of thousands of pounds potentially when simply re-doing the lining in this area would suffice. There are plenty of more willing causes to the taxpayers' money than re-surfacing some extremely lightly used tarmac that only takes vehicles at the start and end of the day and is now even further reduced by car useage by numerous pop-up shops around the pannier building. I give you, for example, the public having to raise funds to replace the Meadows play equipment, trees in the Abbey Weir that have been there for four months now, removing the plethora of fly-posting around the town (including the town council and church posters), providing dog waste bins in all the areas complained about rather than saying that if the bin is full put it in one not meant for dog waste — empty them and put more bins out along the canal for example, etc. I trust if the council is to proceed with the tarmacing, it will provide a breakdown of the costs and a statement of which more needy items are not going to be done at its expense. Mike Hooper Tavistock