I AM writing to you in despair. I am a member of a small Forest village and am an active member of our Playing Fields Committee. Every year we go about fundraising for the improvement and upkeep of our playing fields, which consists of a kiddie's corner, football field and cricket square.
Unfortunately this year we cancelled our carnival due to foot and mouth so we are struggling for funds. We always at this time of year have a harvest festival, so being short of money thought we would advertise the harvest festival more to get more people interested, so took posters to the local shop, post office, school and garage which was not a problem, then thought of somewhere else a lot of locals visit – the doctors' surgery. This has never been a problem before but this time we were told that as it was not medical it could not be put up. I looked about the surgery and, yes, one of the noticeboards had only medical notices on it, but the other one had a variety of things from helpline numbers to advertising the local toddler and playgroup. So why was it a problem to put our poster up on this board? I also noticed a poster for a coffee morning in the local church and was told this was sneaked up without them knowing. Obviously they do not read their noticeboard that often as this poster had been there for a week.
I would just like to point out that it is a poor show when a local village practice cannot support local fundraising events when it will surely benefit the whole of the village including the people who work at the practice. If I am in the wrong and there is some sort of ruling that you cannot put posters up in surgeries like ours then I apologise, but I still think that we should all stand together in improving our village and its facilities. – A fed up villager, St Briavels.