Duncan Marsh was Times Guardian editor from 1987 when the Kent Messenger Group bought the paper until last year when he left to edit one of the company's other titles. He remembers his time at the STG

Having survived the Great Storm of October 1987, and after my permanent editorship was confirmed, we moved to a smaller office in Sheerness Broadway, which was home for a number of years before the KM Group bought the former Morelli's coffee shop, latterly a mini amusement arcade, in the High Street - where the paper is still based today.

By the early 1990s the message was getting through to readers that the KM Group takeover had been a good thing for their paper; it was a genuine 'local' for Sheppey with a staff who lived and worked on the Island (I had married and taken up residence in Halfway).

Sales started to rise and continued to do so year by year, bucking the trend across the region and the newspaper industry.

I had quickly realised that this was great place to edit a paper. It was a newsy place - the docks, prisons, heavy industry and Island location all played a part in that.

But most of all it was the people who, it seemed to me, knitted together in a community unlike any other I had encountered.

Bel Austin once wrote a line in an article: "Nearly everyone in Sheppey is related, or think they are. If you kick one, they all limp."

Nobody could have put it better.

It meant that we had great support when we campaigned for a better deal for the Island. The biggest victory was, of course the new Sheppey Crossing - and what a difference that has made to quality of life. The queues of traffic on and off Sheppey disappeared overnight when it opened.

But the success that gave me most satisfaction was the campaign to save the public swimming pool.

In 2001 it was announced that the council had no money to carry out essential repairs and maintenance to the pool building and structure, and it would have to close within two years.

With all the other services that were being closed or relocated to the mainland, this was a step too far.

Reporter Ian Smart (a non-swimmer) was like a man possessed, supervising fundraising, writing stories and helping to organise a petition through the Times Guardian. We got an incredible 10,000 signatures.

People power won the day and by the end of 2003 the council agreed to spend more than £1million to get the rundown pool back in shape.

I was so proud of my paper's role in that.

There is a great spirit in Sheppey and some super people whose unstinting work for the community I witnessed over my 20 years as editor of the Times Guardian.

It would be a mistake to mention them by name because I would undoubtedly leave somebody out, but they will know who they are.

I've been applauded; I've been spat at. I've been praised; I've been punched in the face. You can't say that I didn't provoke a reaction!

To those with whom I crossed swords... well I hope they appreciate that I had a job to do and always tried my best for the paper and for Sheppey, even if that meant upsetting some of the people some of the time.

The Times Guardian is an institution in the best sense of the word. Long may it continue.