I am a loyal and long-standing reader of the Gazette & Herald. However I can no longer use my local paper to find out what’s going on locally. Please, please, bring back the What’s On page, the Theatre Listings, the Gig Guide and the Local Screens cinema listing.
Whether I’m looking for an open garden, a jumble sale, a play, a folk club or a film, I would expect to look in my local paper to be able to get an overview of what’s on offer. I don’t need pages of puzzles. Those have nothing to do with our neighbourhood and, in my opinion, do not belong in a local paper.
I write this as a general punter. If I had a spare evening and felt like going to some live music, I would often use the Gig Guide to see what was on offer. Or maybe I feel like a trip to the theatre: what’s on at The Pound in Corsham, or the Arc Theatre in Trowbridge? Yes, I could look online at their individual websites, but it really is not the same. In the paper I could see it all in a glance across all the genres and all locations.
I also mourn the loss of these What’s On columns as someone who tries to promote local events and activities. I live in Kington Langley, a very active village with lots going on. We can promote these events in the village through our excellent village magazine, or posters on the notice boards, but often we would like to invite a wider audience. 
There aren’t many good jumble sales these days, and people come a long way to one of the Helping Hands regular events. 
But how do they know these days when the next one is being held?
Or as another example, on September 30, the internationally acclaimed actor Pip Utton will be ‘Playing Maggie’, giving a one-man show totally in character as Margaret Thatcher. 
It’s unusual and maybe quirky, but most importantly live and local. Please give us the chance to bring events like this to the attention of a wider local audience.
VALERIE YOUNG
Kington Langley
Editor’s note: The decision to replace our in-paper listings with puzzles was not one we took lightly but, faced with having to streamline our leisure pages, we felt puzzles had more value for our readers. We are sorry you don’t agree. Community correspondents continue to supply small items about events in the villages and we are always happy to consider other items for publication elsewhere.