Reference your front page story of September 17. I have been a shopkeeper for 40 years trading on a main road in Old Town.

As the amount of traffic has increased, so have the parking restrictions. I have to load and unload my vehicle but am careful to comply with restricted loading times, zig-zags etc.

Twice in the last six weeks, I have pulled up to load or unload, putting my vehicle slightly on the pavement, having assessed the risk to pedestrians as well as fellow motorists, only to have been prevented from getting out of my vehicle to get on with the job by traffic policemen, who pull up alongside, blocking the traffic and, having asked me what I am doing, promptly tell me to get a move on.

We see very few policemen on foot in Old Town and we have given up reporting shoplifters, people with fake money and drunks urinating over flower beds. No wonder crime rates are down!

I struggle to keep a positive attitude to the police – officious, ignorant, stupid, arrogant and rude officers who drive motor cars, do nothing to gain the support of ordinary people like me or my fellow Swindonians.

Rosemary Earle Newport Street Swindon