Community Life....

Even several months on people still come into my shop and say things like: "...when are you going to start writing the Tonbridge Community column in the Courier again?" Which is nice, but the problem is that they didn't treat us Community Life correspondents too well, otherwise I'd still be writing it. Apart from abruptly deciding not to pay us all (and they were only paying us £9 a week anyway!) they never asked us in to see the print works or editorial floor, nor did they ever pay us the odd visit. They lost a lap top computer containing all our personal information, including bank details, and offered us a derisory compensation to fob us off. They never even organised a get together once a year for us all, consequently I only ever got to share ideas and chat with around three or four of the other writers. You'd have thought that with us all being so spread out they might have at least done that once in four years. So I'll never say never but I have to say it's very unlikely that I'll write the column again in the foreseeable future. £100 a week, a car and free luncheon vouchers? When do I start!...