BEWARE Philanthropists!

Perhaps people of Winterslow should be more aware of philanthropists?

Yes, Mr Sheppard has indeed provided land for the village hall, car park and tennis courts and made land available for a doctors’ surgery, a Sports Ground and cricket field for our village community, but we had not envisaged that this philanthropy comes with strings.

We don’t have a problem with Mr Sheppard suddenly forbidding walkers to use his field as such, but if he purports to be so generous to the villagers, then please don’t make out the WOODs group acted dishonestly or with any malice towards him in applying to make the field a Village Green.

This action was taken to try and prevent Mr Sheppard making a great deal of money for himself by offering the field to developers to build many more houses in a village where we already struggle with an adequate infrastructure e.g.

roads, doctors etc. for the ever increasing number of new houses already built and planned for in the near future.

The article in the Journal, May 7 made out that Mr Sheppard is being “robbed” and hard done by, despite all the wonderful things he has done in the past for the village – surely, a philanthropist gives for selfless reasons, not for the “debt” to be paid back?

Mr Sheppard gives his time as a parish councillor, but this means he is well aware of the unease felt in the village about the dangers of the over-development of our area.

Please don’t try and make people feel guilty about trying their best to do what is right for the village.

DIANNE WEEKS, Winterslow