Firstly, could I thank the many people who have called me, (including a local radio station), e-mailed and even stopped me in the street to congratulate me on the position you enabled me to take.

Mr Desty is at the least disingenuous.

My complaint was originally the mean-spiritedness of BBC coverage of local news, particularly, it would seem to me and many others, in the East Hampshire area.

Since I received a reply from Mr Desty's to my letter two weeks ago, my wife and I have watched South Today with great interest to get a handle on how they operate their planning grid.

'Planning'. How we laughed. You do not need a degree in media to work out that to get on to South Today, certainly on the south coast, the item essentially has to take place on a line of the A31/A35 from Poole to Southampton and up the M3 to Winchester, with a short bit of the M27 to Pompey – that's it.

In fact, the weekend Mr Desty's e-letter arrived, the last item for two days on the local news was 'house prices in Dorset are the highest in the UK.' World-shattering news – but not if you're in the BBC and live that way, I suspect.

Just count how often a 'news' item comes from Poole or Bournemouth.

So to be absolutely clear, the request for coverage for the spontaneous outpouring of support for our Armed Forces from the people of Petersfield was treated in precisely the manner I portrayed by a Hyacinth Bucket wannabee.

In his letter to me, Mr Desty said: "We (the BBC) use our resources to cover a whole range of stories and subjects, from hard news to heart-warming community events that recognise great effort."

Heart-warming community events? This is mealy-mouthed in the extreme, Mr Desty.

How else would you describe 20 blokes giving up every evening for a week to be gently beasted by RN Field Gun trainers in order to carry out a charity event and a grand market town raising £3,000 in under an hour to recognise this?

Andy Millar

Moggs Mead, Petersfield