I have just visited the Christchurch Food Festival Best of the Best website to vote for The Thomas Tripp as best pub but find I have to vote for 5 other categories before I can register my vote.

I know absolutely nothing about the other establishments listed so my nomination for these would be totally spurious.

When voting was transferred to the web rather than actually collecting a voting form from the restaurant, tea rooms or pub to prove you had actually been there I could not believe that someone was gullible enough to believe that a web vote would be representative.

I used loads of friends email addresses to vote last year for the one establishment I knew and for a friend's tea rooms which I have never visited!

But, who on earth came up with the idea that it is now mandatory to vote for five other categories to which one has never been to let alone ate in?

After many years of supporting and voting for Best of the Best it is now a completely farcical appraisal of what Christchurch has to offer and I can see no point in voting for somewhere I have never been and consequently will not be voting.