ON ONE of my many visits to Abbey Stadium I noticed Persimmon houses seem to be going up at a fantastic rate and extremely close to the old stadium.

One thought did cross my mind: when is the new stadium being built, or is it being built?

There seems to be nothing going on with anything to do with the new stadium.

In April 2015, Justin Tomlinson MP said he was very excited that work should start on the new stadium in September.

Was that 2014/2015 or 2016? We are half way through November 2015 and nothing but new houses are being built.

Have we all been conned into thinking a new stadium, in exchange for land to build houses and permission granted to build on green belt land close to the old stadium, only for the developer to find a reason not to build the new stadium and the old one having to be pulled down because of all the people who moved right next door to the old track start a petition (500 plus houses)? Or is it because it’s too noisy on speedway race nights and the tannoy on greyhound race nights is keeping the kids awake, and the old track is too close to the houses they bought in 2016?

The track was built in 1947 but that doesn’t matter. The petition will be presented to SBC who will no doubt take the petitioning party’s side and close the old stadium with no new stadium and the land the old one was on will be sold to the developer to build another 100 houses making loads of profit and not having to shell out for a new stadium.

Swindon will be left with nothing but a very poorly performing second division football team.

JOHN L CROOK Haydon Wick, Swindon