SIR — Further to your report on December 28 regarding the closure of the public toilets at Allerford, on behalf of the Museum at Allerford I would like to offer the following comments.

The museum has never been consulted about or informed of these proposals prior to receiving a letter from the National Trust the week before Christmas which informed us that the toilets would closed permanently from January 2, 2013 - peace and goodwill to all men apart from National Trust tenants!

It is simply not true that either the museum or Allerford Forge have been advised of these proposals prior to receipt of the letter.

We are at a loss to understand whether this is arrogance or simply stupidity on behalf of the National Trust.

We are an independent charity run by volunteers, the museum collection is owned by our trustees, we rent the Old School from the National Trust. The major part of our rental is calculated from our visit numbers!

The closure of the toilets will have a major effect on the museum's viability.

We have no modern toilet facilities at the museum and our staff and visitors have always needed to rely on the public toilets opposite the museum; we are now likely to be in contravention of health and safety regulations.

Our visitors include hundreds of young schoolchildren in organised educational visits who are dropped off at Allerford.

They have to use the public toilets either before or after their visit. What will they use now? Will their education suffer because they are unable to visit us?

Similarly, thousands of members of the public visit the museum and Allerford annually, including many members of the National Trust on walking visits etc. The Bossington toilets are not an option for the majority of these people.

We have still not been offered even the possibility of talks with the trust.

An independent visitor recently wrote: "This is one of the best little museums in the country." We are an important element in West Somerset tourism.

We will do our utmost to try and stay open in order to honour the trust and generosity of all the people who have either donated items to the museum or supported us by their visits over the years since 1984.

J M Skudder,

Curator,

West Somerset Rural Life Museum,

Allerford.