Thanks for the feedback.
The beach is because we are based in North Devon by sea: that is a picture of our local beach and I wanted to appeal to local businesses (er... and I just like the sea).
I think you are right that the page is too busy (that was something I'd wondered myself but tried to ignore) - I'll look into that. I like the grey though: at first there was no colour in it at all! I'll also look at ranging the text left to see what I think of that too. Thanks again.