Postcode luck

SIR - No surprise that Marion Hammant of the Civic Society, which seems to have a schizophrenic sort of relationship with the district council, and Simon Grover of the 'watermelon' party - green outer skin, red inside - lobby for continued taxpayer subsidy of cash-guzzling minority-interest arts venues which appeal mainly to the cogniscenti like themselves (Herts Advertiser, October 1).

Here in Harpenden we have no such luxury but our council tax goes into the pot to fund every wacky St Albans activity. The fact that all bar one of our councillors are Tories and all who represent city centre wards are mainly Lib-Dems must be but a coincidence.

Talking of postcode lotteries, bad luck to Dr Tony Hall who copped a �350 fine plus a whopping �635 towards court costs after sentencing at St Albans Magistrates Court for using threatening words or behaviour - was it an either/or offence, or couldn't the beaks make up their minds? - to a neighbour (Herts Advertiser, October 1).

He might have had a fairer experience at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court last week where the 21-year-old son of a former government minister and a circuit judge was fined �250 with a supplement of only �85 towards the court costs for possession of cocaine worth �150, for which he's already received two police cautions.

Finally, good fortune to the Pasque Hospice which received �500 - the maximum award - from Harpenden Town Council last week (Herts Advertiser, October 1). This to a charity which has a successful in-house professional fundraising team from a body funded by precept (i.e. not a voluntary donation) which has a fund topped up annually and set aside for distribution, by application, to small local charities and voluntary organisations for whom this sort of amount would make a real difference.

ROBERT HILL

East Common, Harpenden