Over the years the people of Bath and surrounding areas have continually shown how incredibly generous they are.

In a city with many active small charitable concerns as well as several large, busy and more high-profile charities, it would be easy to understand if compassion fatigue was a common curse among local people.

Thankfully, however, this seems to be far from the case and every week the

Chronicle

is delighted to report plenty of stories about support for local, national and international charities.

If you look at pages six and seven today, for example, you can get a glimpse of just some of the efforts being made by local people to help the victims in far off Haiti.

From families and school children to big organisations such as Bath Rugby and the local fire station, many people have been working extremely hard to raise every penny they can – and are doing so in increasingly diverse and imaginative ways.

And it is not just these one-off emergencies that demonstrate Bath's generous streak. The big Bath area charities we all know and love continue to thrive because of the support of local people but sometimes it is the results of the more 'run of the mill' street collections that really show the caring spirit of the people in this city.

In our letters section today you can read about how the Salvation Army raised an incredible £7,000 from their carol services on the city streets over Christmas.

And also this week in explaining how everyone who attended the Chronicle/Rotary Club of Bath annual carol service helped raise £1,000 on the night, we are able to report that the same hard-working group of Rotarians raised £6,000 from their street collections as well.

Of course, Bath is known for having a decent percentage of wealthy people but as we all know, this city is far from being paved with gold throughout and the evidence is that generosity is just as strong among the 'have nots' as the haves. It is just a very charitable city.

What this all shows us is no matter how difficult people's own personal situations are, local people do have very big hearts – and very deep pockets.