I read with interest your report (NSS January) of the setting up of the heritage goods and services register.

However commendable the idea, it is my experience with these things that the very people who should be on such a register - ie the highly skilled, time served individuals often self-employed and already enjoying a reputation for first class craftsmanship - will not, understandably, pay money to be listed, especially without knowing what quality of craftsmanship they are linking themselves to. There are four of us here who won\'t be subscribing.

Any form of directory cannot claim to be comprehensive unless everybody in the particular line of business is included. Even Yellow Pages acknowledge that, to their credit. Chequebook accreditation will not produce a worthy work of reference.

Any conservation craftsperson worth his or her salt will be busy on a continuous basis and won\'t pay money to be on a database when their own customer base is so well established. Asking them for money is no way to draw these highly individual people out of their shells to make them and what they do better known.

Of course it is a step in the right direction, but at present sounds like those international directory entry applications that we all throw in the bin.