Re: Confused by sports facility I’M sorry to see that Mr Helps is still confused by comments made on behalf of Hazlemere Sports Association (BFP 28.11.14).

Firstly, he claims that he is not connected to the parish council in any way, yet he was a parish councillor for a brief period in the summer of 2013. One can reasonably assume that he knows the chairman and vice-chairman personally.

He clearly believes that our sports association was paying an inappropriate rent, yet fails to acknowledge that the building has been managed by unpaid volunteers since June 2010. Had they received a salary; our community sports association wouldn't have been able to afford the considerable cost of running this building.

Presumably Mr Helps approves of the council’s decision to appoint a salaried manager to look after the building? The Hazlemere tax payers now have to pay for a salary on top of a large legal bill.

Does he honestly think that we would have accepted the responsibility for running the building on the basis that we would pay a commercial rent on top of all the other obligations? The original peppercorn rent agreement enabled the parish council to avoid a large VAT bill on the construction cost.

Domestic rents in the Hazlemere area are an irrelevant comparison. We feel betrayed by the actions of this incompetent parish council who spectacularly failed to produce a legally binding lease agreement over a seven-year period (check their minutes of meetings going back to 2007) and never gave any indication until 2012 that we would ultimately have to pay a substantial commercial rent.

Mr Mapletoft will be heartened to know he has one supporter in Hazlemere. Over 1,200 people disapprove of what this parish council has done to our sports community. - John Horton, Hazlemere