7:10am Thursday 3rd September 2009
A group of volunteers has had to call time on nearly 50 years of selling programmes at Fairfield Halls.
The board at the concert venue decided last month to cancel the group of 20 volunteers selling the programmes at events.
Vivien Griffin, who has been a volunteer for 20 years, said the group were gutted at the news.
The 69-year-old said: “I was told about six weeks ago the board had decided they did not want us anymore, but they did not have the courtesy to tell our chairman.
“We do enjoy it and give an awful lot of our time. We like meeting our customers.
“The news came totally out of the blue. None of the ladies were happy. A lot were very upset. It is very disappointing.”
The group began selling programmes in 1962 when the Fairfield Halls first opened.
One member has been volunteering for more than 30 years.
The group are mostly ladies, with only one man - Mrs Griffin’s husband whom she roped in.
Mrs Griffin believes the board made their decision based on their financial situation.
The volunteers are paid 10 percent of the programme sales, which Mrs Griffin said only amounted to about £6,000 a year.
She said she doubted this would help the venue with its finances.
She said: “I understand the financial situation is quite desperate but I can’t see them getting much money out of this.
“It does not seem feasible.”
The group had a farewell dinner at the Croydon Park Hotel on Wednesday last week.
Mrs Griffin said: “We had a really good evening although it was very sad.”
Derek Barr, chief executive at Fairfield Halls, said: “This is not something we as an organisation took lightly. There are costs associated with the programme sellers and we have to keep them in mind.
“We chose to use existing staff and save these costs from September 1. We are sorry this came about but we need to keep reflecting on our costs.”
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