Stitching... and Bitching

We're a nice friendly group of ladies, on the whole, in the Stitch and Bitch group.
In fact, I've just waddled home from an excellent Christmas lunch at the Black Lion, where we all had a wonderful time.

Sadly, though, in the New Year we will be looking for a new place to meet.

We've been going to the Swan on the first Thursday of the month, and sometimes a Thursday in the middle of the month, for several years now. We've sat in the little room at the end of the bar, or the lounge, or the meeting room by the front door, or even in the back bar. The agreement has always been that we buy a drink when we come, and then we can spend a couple of hours knitting, crocheting, sewing and chatting. If another group has paid to book a room, we've always been happy to move elsewhere, because we have always understood that the hotel needs to make a profit.

However, times have changed. The Swan has new owners who want to take it upmarket, and I understand that all the community groups that currently use the rooms of the Swan have been given a letter with the new terms and conditions.
Okay, they're re-furbishing and spending an awful lot of money on the building....
But....

The new terms are that each member of the group should pay £10 a session, which will include a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit.
That would be fair enough - the hotel has the right to charge what it wants (though as a group we don't want to spend that much to meet anywhere), and the young man we spoke to was very pleasant, but at the end of our last session there, we were given a letter. Here's the bit we were annoyed about:

"I have kept my side of the agreement, but disappointingly your club has not, at the last meeting of your club. On Thursday 3rd December 2015 only £23.20 was taken. This is not acceptable and this is why the property was in a loss making position."

So, the staff were totting up what we were buying (and we did all buy a drink), and somebody (possibly even that pleasant young man) was typing in the details while we were right there in the next room.
It's worth pointing out that this is £23.20 the hotel would not otherwise have taken, and they would have had the heating and lighting on in that room anyway.

So we're looking around Hay for an alternative place to meet. All we need is a room with a good source of light - so we can see to knit and sew - and we always buy a drink each.