31 October 2023 , 13:05
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A pub landlady was left in tears after receiving a "cruel" letter criticising her Halloween decorations.
Heather Skipper, 58, who has run The Royal Oak in Penclawdd for nearly ten years, loves to decorate the pub with spooky items every October. This year, however, an anonymous person sent her a strongly worded letter of complaint about her decorations.
The letter, which arrived on Thursday, October 26, read: "With all the cruelty and atrocities going on in the world, why would you want to put such horrific things outside your pub? Penclawdd residents do not want that, we are better than that."
The letter of complaint sent to pub landlady Heather (Heather Skipper)Heather was left upset by the letter and thought about taking all the decorations down. But after speaking to staff, who reminded her that many local people have praised the effort they've gone to in decorating the pub for Halloween, she eventually decided to keep them up.
She told WalesOnline: "I got the letter in the post on Thursday and honestly, I just cried. I've done the decorations for such a long time and usually people are so positive about it - the children really love them and we have a free children's party and a Halloween party for adults every year too. I was so upset to receive the letter. I've been at the pub for nine years now and every year we do the decorations and we've never had a complaint or issue before.
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"I did say to the staff 'oh maybe I should take them down?' I was so upset - but Laura [a member of staff] reminded me how many positive responses we've had from the decorations so I decided to keep them up. I shared the letter on Facebook, I wanted to see if anyone would own-up to writing the letter or say why they don't like the decorations, but people can't believe it. The support has been tremendous, they say the person can't be speaking for Penclawdd residents because they all like the decorations."
Several locals have shown their support for Heather, disagreeing with the anonymous letter. One local wrote: "Penclawdd residents absolutely do want that and it's nice that somebody is actually making an effort in the village these days! Keep it up Heather, if they were that concerned they would have identified themselves!" Another added: "Crazy Penclawdd - perhaps they didn't get the 'it's Halloween' memo! Take no notice if people don't like it don't look, simple. I like what you do on these kinds of occasion!"
This year, Heather and her team have gone all out to decorate the pub with bunting, spider-web decorations, witches, ghosts and skeletons. The Royal Oak is the first pub she's ever run, but she loves being a landlady. She added: "I'm a single lady, I'm by myself but the pub is such a community pub that there's always people around. The village is lovely, it's a fantastic place to be, such a community. I always want to do things for the community - like my decorations and the Halloween parties.
"This year, we've already had a party for the adults, we had that on Saturday, and now we're getting ready for the children's party, we'll do games like musical statues and there will be a fancy dress competition with a £25 prize. It's all free, just something fun for the children and their parents to come along to. I won't be taking my decorations down, but I was so, so upset by the letter. Whoever it is that wrote it, I wish they had just come in and spoken to me and told me what decorations they didn't like."
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