Hampstead Heath has seen pathways turn to mud after increased footfall

• MANY thanks to your newspaper, reporter Dan Carrier, and the equally honourable councillor Graham Harrower, for exposing the City of London Corporation’s spending, while reducing their costs for maintaining Hampstead Heath, increasing charging of pond swimmers, personal trainers, dog walkers, users of the running tracks; and their pondering of charging people to use the public toilets, (Revealed: Heath guardians spent £315k on ‘wining and dining’, February 4).

I find this corporation / charity very confusing. Many legal experts also. From being a tax haven for the international banking interests they represent, to being a charity that charges.

The charities and NGOs I worked for provided free public services, and had workers pay for any food and drink consumed at yearly gatherings, like Christmas etc, not private members’ clubs, bars and restaurants etc.

The City holds many surprises, from a quasi-democratic entity to their private police force; a mayor no one knows; their remembrancer (their “fixer”); to the Queen having to ask permission to enter their square mile; to the chairwoman of the Heath committee stating they consult with Heath users when all swimming associations say this process no longer exists.

I note Ed Sheeran paid more taxes than the Queen the last year. Maybe it’s time she reined in this medieval cartel and returned the Heath to the people, free of charge, as the 1871 Heath act states. She, surely, like so many of us, hates this entity rubbing her and our faces in the mud…

ANDRE LOPEZ-TURNER, NW5