SEVERAL points, first, I travelled down Manchester Road last Thursday afternoon.

I had picked up my wife from the new disabled centre in Sanford Street, (no toilets) and counted 18 cars either parked on yellow lines, on the pavement or in the side streets.

Not one ticket issued, so the wardens also treat this road as a no go area like they do with Gorse Hill.

At the end of the road near County Road, the road sweeper was out doing his job.

These are like rocking horse manure in Stratton, we now have to do this work ourselves.

Can the council let us have one to do the job and tools to lift the drain covers so we can clear them as well as they have been blocked for over a year?

My reply to Steve Thompson is simple; did that article say the family had a ‘house’ in Turkey and that he had a job, and the family were on a boat meant for six but carrying 15 and its engine failed as it left the harbour? Did it say the man’s father, a people smuggler, was steering the boat but he didn’t die?

Did it say why he was going on the trip paid for by his aunt in Canada? It’s not me who was taken in Steve. And why you should mention the IRA terrorists in Gibraltar is beyond words. Think of the two 11-year-boys killed in Warrington; think of the two Royal Signals Corporals who were butchered by an IRA mob in Northern Ireland; think of Lord Mountbatten and the children who were in that boat.

As I said before Steve, you need to have a good look at yourself. Remarks like that are a disgrace.

T REYNOLDS Wheeler Avenue, Swindon