Nice to see that Tania Swallow is using the usual emotional black-mail in trying to muster support for the Swallows South Ruislip gymnastics centre [Gym strategy is puzzling me,Letters, December 3].
This centre is a business pure and simple,a charity it is not.
The Swallows claim that they were under the impression that the centre was a registered charity and would not be subject to the usual business rates and rent that they would otherwise incur.
Since they are experienced business people,with other businesses in the area, surely they must have known this when they opened it?
At the least, one would have expected them to check all this out thoroughly before they started. Did they really think they could run an operation of this size without paying rent or rates as the rest of us have to?
In my opinion there are faults on both sides; the council should have picked it up much earlier,and the Swallows should not have expected to get away with it for so long.
D JONES,
The Fairway, Ruislip.
