A WORCESTERSHIRE village is at the centre of a poison pen scandal after an anonymous note appeared claiming a children’s cancer charity had been fleeced – by the police.

The typed, unsigned note suddenly appeared among the selection of village news and local events advertised on the noticeboard at Storridge village hall, near Malvern.

It read: “West Mercia Police Force has cost a kids charity & has not even paid the money back. They have acted very disgraceful & pathetic towards the charity concerned & cannot even do the decent thing & pay the lost funds back.

“The Chief constable should be so ashamed of his conduct along with other members of West Mercia Police.”

Anne Freeman, a member of the village hall committee, went straight out to remove the notice as soon as she heard about it. She said she had no idea who it could have come from or what it might have referred to – and the police are equally stumped by the note.

“Personally I doubt very much it had anything to do with Storridge,” said Mrs Freeman. “I think it is someone who has gone around posting this one particular, rather nasty, notice on village hall notice boards. I just think it is someone being malicious.

“It is anonymous and so non-specific it does not mean anything and just casts unpleasant thoughts.”

The noticeboard is unlocked, so can be accessed by anyone. However, Mrs Freeman does not believe that policy will now change .

“I have lived here for 40 years and been on the management committee on-and-off for about a decade, and there is no precedent whatsoever for anything like this,” she said.

“The noticeboard is well-used by all our local groups and societies and I would not have thought we would look at restricting it because of this one thing.”

A West Mercia Police spokesman said: “We have absolutely no idea what this letter relates to and have had no complaints reported to us about such a matter.

“However, we are grateful this has been brought to our attention and if anyone does have any information that could help shed light on the allegations we'd be very interested to hear from them.”