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Bus service disaster

The recent change in the Wroughton No 9 bus service has been a complete disaster for the people of Wroughton.

We have lost a service which used to cover the whole village and now we have the ridiculous situation where North Wroughton has lost their 20 minute service and now have only the hourly No 49 Devizes bus which previously would not pick anyone up after Wroughton High Street, and in the rest of the village most of the picking up points mean that travellers have to wait in the rain opposite covered bus stops.

It can only be a matter of time before someone is knocked down, after waiting under cover and having to rush across the road when a bus approaches.The covered bus stop in Kelsboro Avenue is no longer used, travellers having to stand in the rain in Wharf Road and the promised 15 minute service has been anything but and a wait of half an hour or more is not unusual!

But why the change? Wichelstowe, which I understand will become a South Swindon parish, is already covered by a Thamesdown No 15 service which runs to Haydon Wick every 20 minutes via Swindon and all stops to Asda Walmart and with the combined bus services means they have buses every five to 10 minutes to Swindon.

It is time this harebrained scheme is scrapped and our original service is returned forthwith.

Frank Skull, Summerhouse Road, Wroughton

Sell the County Ground

So Swindon Town have joined the supporters’ trust in bidding for the freehold of the County Ground.

The trust had a figure of £1.1 million in mind but Swindon Borough Council have a figure double that.

In 2014 the population of the borough was 215,800 and is estimated in 2018 to be nearer 224,195.

Average attendance in 2017/2018 at the County ground was 6,436 so 217,759 of the local population did not attend the games.

At a time when the borough council’s finances (meaning the council tax payer) are under extreme pressure I see no reason to sell the freehold for football purposes but sell the land for the greatest amount possible for the shortfall in the budget.

SBC continually tell us that vulnerable children and the elderly need more and more of the council tax revenue.

Surely it is our duty to support these people rather than 6,436 football supporters who in fact pay to a private enterprise for their entertainment.

STFC should have been moved on long ago and built their own stadium and released the County Ground for the better good of the community.

Peter Cleary, Eastbury Way, Swindon

Law unto themselves

The current government in which both current Swindon MPs are ministers has recently rejected a parliamentary petition calling for a further referendum on our EU membership on the basis that the Leave campaign has been found to have broken electoral law.

I would therefore like to ask both Robert Buckland MP and Justin Tomlinson MP if it is only electoral law that the government is happy to see broken?

Or does the government condone breaking other laws such as those require people to pay tax? Or perhaps those that require people to follow certain standards when driving such as adhering to the speed limit? Or possibly the criminal law such as not robbing banks?

Adam Poole, Savill Crescent, Wroughton

Failed geography

HG Smith seems to have re-written my school geography text books, (Shut up and put up, SA 2nd August).

Not only has he towed us out into mid-Atlantic so that we are no longer part of Europe, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have been left behind.

He also talks of a thousand-year true bloodline. As someone with a Scottish grandfather, a Welsh great grandmother and also a Spanish great grandmother I’m beginning to feel stateless.

Don Reeve, Horder Mews, Old Town, Swindon