Madam, I am writing to you with regards the article 'Parking fears at Ross Sports Centre' which was published in last week's Ross Gazette.

I am the proprietor of The River Wye Canoe Hire Company presently based at Ross sports centre. It is not Ross-on-Wye Canoe Hire that has a booking with Halo Leisure, it is ourselves. Ross on Wye Canoe Hire actually belongs to my father and they are based in Symonds Yat West.

Firstly our canoe trailer and mini bus has never blocked a large area of the car park, it however was inadvertently put in front of an emergency exit and I was asked to move it by one of the rugby players which I immediately did.

To Correct Councillor Bramer's comment, we actually do have permission from Herefordshire  Council as it was the planning dept who I approached initially about the use of the centre who in turn put me in touch with Halo Leisure.

At the end of the day we are trying to run a business which in turn will bring more tourists and wealth into the area, if parking is an issue it will be addressed, but this kind of hassle we can certainly do without.

Mark Simons, The River Wye Canoe Hire Company

Editor's note, The information about the name of the company came from a statement from Halo Leisure.