THIS year, the musicians playing the Bournemouth bandstand have been told not to expect any money for their work.

In previous years these professionals have been paid, but now they are expected to subsist on whatever passers-by drop into money boxes.

The Musicians’ Union deplores this attitude and calls on Bournemouth Borough Council to reassess their policy on payment for this work.

Professional musicians cannot work for nothing. Like all of us, they have families to feed and rent to pay.

The council say that they are not expecting musicians to work for nothing, they are just offering them the opportunity to do so. This strikes me as being a particularly cowardly way of avoiding the issue. They wouldn’t ask a plumber to work for free, or a cleaner or an electrician. So why musicians?

Music has a value and people enjoy listening to it, that’s why the council want musicians in the bandstand - it’s just a shame they don’t see fit to pay for it.

Jamie Pullman

Gresham Road, Bournemouth