Vlad - thanks again for your help...
I am getting the gaps as you say!!! In fact that was the reason I first posted about this because I thought "This just can't be right!!!"
Also I have noticed that even thought the PK in the view is updateable the GetNextID function is not being called from the base table - there are no entries in my Counter table??!!
Would you expect always to see in the Counter table...
TABLE NEXTID
CUSTOMERS 12
V_CUSTOMERS 12
I.e. the table and the view in unison?