15104/01GAZETTE & HERALD: CONTROVERSIAL webmaster Mitch Hawkins has defended his decision to keep his Lyneham site up and running despite numerous attempts to shut it down.

Residents in Lyneham have accused Mr Hawkins of giving the village a bad name by using what they claim is offensive and derogatory material on www.lynehamvillage.co.uk.

The site professes to be endorsed by the parish council, but contains pictures of exposed male genitals and personal attacks on villagers.

But Mr Hawkins, 38, said: "There's much worse stuff on the Internet and on TV. This is just a bit of fun."

He said the site has had more than 800 hits each day.

Mr Hawkins, of Comet Close, started the website in August as a competitor to the award-winning www.lynehamvillage.com.

"I found it really boring and thought I could provide a site about Lyneham with a bit more humour," he said. "It's the first website I've ever done and I spent hundreds of hours perfecting it and making it look professional.

"Now the other webmaster is worried he's got a rival so has started complaining about it. He just doesn't want the competition.

"I agree that some stuff on there could be offensive to some people, but there's certainly nothing pornographic. There's so much more on the Internet that is worse, and just look at programmes like Little Britain they're offensive.

"It all boils down to freedom of speech. It's uncensored and should remain that way.

"That's the beauty of the Internet. You can do what you like when you like pretty much anything goes as long as it doesn't hurt children or old ladies."

But former RAF serviceman Andy Humm, who runs the officially recognised www.lynehamvillage.com, is furious that his rival is still up and running despite more than 30 complaints.

Mr Humm, who has won six awards for his work reiterated that it was not a rivalry or jealousy issue.

The father of five said: "This isn't a tittle tattle battle," he said. "The site is using the faade of Lyneham and giving us a bad name.

"I know there are worse things on the Internet but imagine if young children were searching for Lyneham at school and came across these images."

Since lynehamvillage.co.uk was launched last summer Mr Humm estimates he has written to the site's host, Zyweb, more than 50 times asking for action to be taken.

District councillor Allison Bucknell said: "What I object to is the fact that Andy Humm has put an awful lot of time, money and effort into his website, which is an officially recognised community asset and then this guy comes along and takes the mickey out of it.

"It's making the village sound like a laughing stock full of perverts and criminals.

"I don't think the requests made to Zyweb have been unreasonable, but it seems they are refusing to honour their terms and conditions. Where do we go from here?"

Merlyn Kline, from Zyweb, said: "We have devoted an enormous amount of time and effort to processing complaints and facilitating negotiations between the complainants and the publisher of www.lynehamvillage.co.uk. As a direct result of these efforts a great deal of material on the site has been changed or removed completely.

"As far as we are aware the site is not breaking any laws and the owner therefore has a right to publish it."