IN reply to John Foster’s letter about West Auckland Working Men's Club (HAS, Dec 13), I would like to put the record straight. Firstly, as for charging more for the beer than other clubs, our beer is £2.30 a pint and lager is £2.50 a pint – I think that speaks for itself.

We pay on average £2,000 a month for heating and lighting. The reason we no longer have a kids trip is lack of support – nobody wants to go to Redcar for the day anymore.

As for our OAP treat, the meal costs the club £20 per head plus we give everybody two free drinks and free bingo and raffle.

Our children’s Christmas party is run by our bar staff and is on December 19, children £3, parents free. The bar staff have spent a fortune on selection boxes, children’s entertainers and a disco.

What Mr Foster failed to mention is that we have an aged members outing every year where the bus is free and each member gets £20 to buy their lunch.

One of the committee members, Andrew Alderson, has spent 52 weeks running domino cards, spirit draws and raffles to raise money for the treat and he also got dressed up as Santa Claus for the party. Judging by the positive comments we received, everybody loved it – and long may it continue.

We struggle to get anybody to help run the club and if it was not for the efforts of the present committee, we would not have a club.

Dave Bowes, on behalf of the committee, West Auckland Club