WITH reference to the letters of Keith Brooks, (ViewPoints, April 23, March 4) concerning the heating system of Horspath village hall, I had in fact addressed the problems of the cold waiting room by putting in my own oil-filled heater as an interim measure, since our investigations revealed the heating system to be working well at that time, and this was the only radiator affected.

More recently, we’ve had several incidents of the heating system being turned off at the main control, but I have no idea who is doing this. I did call out an emergency engineer as the entire system went off just before a parish council meeting and could not be got going again. It seems that the boiler was completely de-pressurized and, to quote his report: “I found that someone had isolated the radiator (in the doctor’s waiting room) to stop it functioning by removing the cover cap, and turning the lockshield valve completely off.”

I have no idea who would wish to do such things to a community building run by volunteers.

However, I would point out that there is little incentive for anyone to volunteer to help their community if their efforts are undermined.

Most volunteers have limited free time and I find it very disheartening to have so little support when I have put hundreds of hours into improving the village hall complex.

As a result, the building has been completely refurbished and re-decorated, including sourcing £90,000 grant funding to improve our children’s play facilities, and bringing the finances to a point where the hall no longer needs to be subsidized by our Horspath council tax payers, with several hundred hirers each year allowing us to provide a subsidy for local community activities.Perhaps the detractors could consider this.

DR ANGELA JULIAN, treasurer HVHMC, Gidley Way, Horspath