Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters.

We have to think big

I would query Ronald Chadwick`s comments regarding the Eastern Villages concept.

While we probably all welcome expansion it goes without saying it must be well thought out and planned accordingly. This must include all the infrastructure, of which a major part must be the roads - not necessarily the roads in the Eastern Villages themselves but the access roads into Swindon and its environs.

Currently during the mornings and late afternoons Oxford Road is gridlocked most of that time. An additional 16,000 extra cars is not going to improve matters.

The road bridge which he mentions will, according to the planners, only carry buses and cyclists, so will not alleviate the increased traffic flow. Do we, the citizens who currently live in this area, welcome it? I think not.

The whole thing has been ill thought out and seems to change on a weekly basis.

There is a long overdue need for an in depth study, preferably by independent experts, as to how to achieve a system that will benefit all of Swindon.

There are no cheap solutions to these problems. Moreover we must at this time be looking to the future - the real future, not five years down the way.

If we want our town to prosper we must think big. If we do then we can expect companies to take note and hopefully relocate to Swindon.

David Collins, Blake Crescent, Swindon

Illegal concept

In reply to John Dennis I am afraid his idea of encouraging businesses to move up north into areas where houses are cheap would be illegal under EU law.

Within the EU Single Market these things must be left to market forces and any interference is classed as state aid and strictly against the rules.

If we want to provide affordable homes for the young generation then we have no option but for local councils to start building council houses.

300,000 council houses will need to be built every year because at the present time there are two million people waiting for a council house and the lists are growing all the time. If we started building at this speed it would still take about seven years to clear the backlog of people currently on council house the waiting list.

Steve Halden, Beaufort Green, Swindon

J16 is a pig’s ear

So junction 16 has opened properly after 17 months - and it looks like a complete pig’s ear.

It’s always been a horrid junction where people just push in from any direction often because they couldn’t read the decades old paint on the road telling you which lane to use.

It looks like it’s been designed by a committee of aliens who have never seen or driven a car on a road. It looks so complicated from the air and I’ll be avoiding it like the plague as will many other people I’m sure.

It reminds me of the shambles at the Bruce Street bridges. That took months and months, looked rubbish from the start, needed resurfacing almost immediately and then had a drastic redesign so you didn’t have to give way to the left as you headed towards Rodbourne Road.

Who is in charge of designing roads around here, the Chuckle Brothers?

Roger Lack, North Swindon

What are parents up to?

In response to the letter from Peter Smith who said that myself and Roger Lack were well off with our appraisal of made-up conditions that many children seem to have - my main concern was that the lack of parenting skills was often a contributory factor.

I do, however, agree with some of Peter’s comments, and I bow to his vastly superior knowledge.

But why is it that some really young children are attending the early days schooling and are being sent to the appropriate educational establishment wearing nappies, therefore expecting the teachers to take on parenting.

Teachers are there to teach, not change nappies. I deem this to be a lack of parenting skills by not training your child appropriately in the first place and if you can’t be bothered with that, then what will you be bothered with? Certainly not a child who has a certain condition, and is running amok in a supermarket.

Chris Gleed, Proud Close, Purton