• WHILST being sure I’m making the right decision, it is with sadness and after some thought that I write my final contribution for this column. Unfortunately our terms and conditions as community correspondents have been fundamentally changed and as a matter of principle I feel I cannot continue.

I want to say an enormous thank you to everyone who has sent me their news over these past 5 years.

I have thoroughly enjoyed writing the column and made so many new friends as a result.

I shall now return to concentrating on my other freelance writing outlets, having become maybe a little lazy at pursuing these in recent years. Weymouth holds so many distractions and like many writers, I am expert in procrastination, especially on sunny days.

If anyone out there wants to take on any of the areas I have been covering, I’m happy to help them get started. I have a notebook full of contacts.

Meanwhile, it’s ‘thank you everyone’ and ‘goodbye’.