I FEEL I must respond to the comments made by Mrs Fairclough (Your Letters, December 30) regarding the apparent indifference towards the feelings of children by the Malvern Hills Lions during Santa's sleigh visit to Malvern from December 18-23.

I am truly sorry that any child was disappointed and did not get to see Santa as he made his rounds. We gave away over 1,700 bags of sweets to the children of Malvern during the five nights we were out and tried to cover as much of the town as possible. We need to stop in places where children can safely see Santa and not to move on when there are still children and their parents coming up to the sleigh.

This will inevitably mean that the published timetable will experience some slippage and, due to the locations of parked vehicles, we may need to take an alternative way into some roads and to go further down the road past where the children may be waiting before we can safely stop.

Mrs Fairclough's comments were most hurtful and failed to give due credit to the Lions and their supporters, who are all volunteers and who try to ensure that as many children as possible see Santa.

Although the sleigh operates over the five days for three hours on each day, the setting up takes another three days. This includes testing the lighting and safety systems as well as the boxing up of the sweets Santa gives out. One of our members spent over three months of his spare time rebuilding Santa's sleigh so it is now safer and more accessible to the children.

Each night the sleigh operated, there were nine of us, being Lions and their supporters, with ages ranging from 40-75. A number of those are working, travelling home to come out with the sleigh and get Santa to the children. This is all made worthwhile by the round- eyed wonder of tiny babes in arms carried to the sleigh by their mums and of all the children who confide their Christmas lists to Santa.

This event is undertaken by our members and supporters primarily to provide a service to the children of Malvern but, nevertheless, over the five nights we raised £633 and we are most grateful to everyone who contributed, particularly to the children for their pocket money, and this will enable us to help more local groups in the coming year. May I wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year from Malvern Hills Lions.

DAVID JEAVONS, president, Malvern Hills Lions Club, Worcester Road, Newland.