FORMER mayor Councillor Sally Casson hardly slept the night before last Tuesday s meeting, she revealed. During a passionate speech, she said she had been compelled to write down her thoughts.

FORMER mayor Councillor Sally Casson hardly slept the night before last Tuesday's meeting, she revealed.

During a passionate speech, she said she had been compelled to write down her thoughts.

"It's deja vu. We've been here before," she said, going on to take the public "back in time".

She referred to the swimming pool saying, when the idea for a town pool was first mooted, there were complaints about the site and costs. She said Honiton now has a pool that is well-used.

Councillor Casson reminded the meeting that a penny was put on the rates - to save the town's centrepiece, St Paul's Church.

When the sports centre was first discussed, people had said nobody would use it and that it was in the wrong place.

"It is very well used and, some evenings, it is bursting at the seams," she said.

She made a swingeing attack on those who had called the meeting. "Where is the mandate from ratepayers that six people can call a town poll?" she asked.

And, in a rousing finale to her speech, Councillor Casson described the community centre plan as "forward thinking" and declared her support.

She said: "Let's not be selfish. Let's build it - not for us, but for the future residents of Honiton.