MY family and I have thoroughly enjoyed the Royston Arts Festival. We ve been directly involved in one or two events and visited others. It s amazing just how much creativity there is in a small market town. So you can imagine our surprise to discover t

MY family and I have thoroughly enjoyed the Royston Arts Festival. We've been directly involved in one or two events and visited others.

It's amazing just how much creativity there is in a small market town.

So you can imagine our surprise to discover the whole of Market Hill and Fish Hill being dug up on Sunday morning, rendering most of the parking utterly useless and access to the Corn Exchange virtually impossible.

Traders were only notified of this last Wednesday.

Are we seriously expected to believe that our local council is so inept that these works were inadvertently timetabled for the same weekend as our much publicised festival?

Hardly. Following some ill-timed comments in another local paper a few weeks ago one can only assume that there must be a small posse of councillors out there who would love to see Royston reduced to a "ghost town" and would probably dance on its grave.

They are to our community what Sweeney Todd was to hair design. They are not acting in the best interests of this town and it's high time there was an investigation into the true motivation behind some of the unbelievable planning decisions that have been made recently.

A GIRLING (Mrs)

CONGRATULATIONS Royston.

What a fantastic four days of fun and entertainment we've just enjoyed.

I'd like to congratulate the six members of the Royston Arts Festival Committee 2007 for the brilliant programme they brought to the town from Thursday to Sunday.

I enjoyed stand up comedy, theatre, live music, singing, art in several dimensions and the company of Royston people from all different parts of the town.

There has been so much negativity about our town in the press in the past few months. Royston isn't just about shops and public toilets - we've a wealth of talent; from the young people in the youth choir and town band to the more mature musicians, artists, actors and craftspeople.

We should celebrate our achievements, and those of you who didn't bother to visit Nu nightclub on Thursday for stand up comedy, or Greneway School for our home-grown acting talent, or the town hall/museum for our artists or the concerts for our musicians or the library for an insight into local authors or any of the other events held this past weekend shouldn't complain about the state of our town, it's your loss for what you might have appreciated.

We're special in Royston, and we should celebrate and support our talented community and the people who work full- time, but give their spare to making entertainment for others.

Sports facilities are great too - but they're just not enough for a town of 14,000 people. Royston needs a cultural centre where we can gather to enjoy arts, music, theatre and cinema.

EMMA DAINTREY

Field Crescent

Royston