THE director of animal rights group PETA says she is 'disappointed' Wool Parish Council has dismissed a suggestion to re-name the village 'Vegan Wool'.

As reported in Tuesday's Daily Echo, parish clerk Jacqui Hughes and chairman Keith Foggon have decided the matter will no longer be discussed at the next council meeting.

They said villagers had "no appetite" for PETA's request, and Wool's name derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for a spring - not the wool industry.

However, PETA director Elisa Allen said the council had declined the opportunity to highlight an important issue.

"This was an opportunity for a small community to help highlight, on a large scale, the many vegan fabrics readily available today that don't harm a single hair on an animal's head or support animal agriculture, which is wreaking havoc on the planet. "Disappointingly, Wool Parish Council refuses to discuss the request at its next meeting and has thereby locked PETA out of the conversation."

Mrs Hughes suggested in her letter to PETA on Monday that the group's offer of 2,000 wool-free blankets to villagers, should Wool be re-named, were donated to local homeless shelters instead.

Responding yesterday, Ms Allen said: "Had we been given the platform we were promised, we would've explained that we'd gladly donate the wool-free knits to a local homeless shelter or other worthy cause if the council went along with this fun, easy, and unthreatening idea – even for just a day. "What a win-win situation that would've been! PETA will, however, still donate some warm vegan garments to the needy in the community – and we'll continue to spread the message that sheep's wool, like foxes' fur, belongs to the animals who were born with it."