IT really is time that someone explained the meaning of the word 'charity' to the penny-pinching Scrooges running the Government's Customs and Excise department.

Many generous individuals and organisations have contributed to the Ilkley Bandstand project with the intention that the money should be used to create a worthwhile attraction for the town.

The project will provide a focal point for public entertainment as well as enhancing the area of the Grove in front of the former Convalescent Hospital.

Of course, the organisers could have gone to central or local government cap in hand for funds to build the bandstand, but they already knew what the answer would be. That is why the two Ilkley Rotary clubs teamed up to form a charitable trust and launch a fundraising drive to achieve the £72,000 needed.

There can be no sensible or moral reason why one penny of this locally-raised money should disappear into the pockets of Whitehall bureaucrats, but that is not how they saw it.

Customs and Excise officials said that they wanted £10,000 worth of the charitable donations in VAT and they were prepared to bend any sense of reality - by classifying a bandstand as something other than a building - to get it.

Instead of lying down and paying up, it is to the credit of bandstand committee member Michael Braithwaite that he brought the town's MP, Ann Cryer, into the row. Now it seems that Customs and Excise officials are preparing to back down and re-classify the bandstand as a public building which will qualify for a zero VAT rating.

The whole argument has brought credit on Mrs Cryer and the bandstand committee, but nothing but shame and derision on customs officials who seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing.