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4G is waste of money

THE Conservative administration on Swindon Borough Council continues to endorse the wireless broadband network planned for North Swindon.

They do this despite the repeated calls from residents and Labour councillors to stop the deployment and councillors of all political colours rejecting planning permission for the masts required to rollout their version of superfast broadband.

Residents, Labour councillors and some Conservative councillors have also argued that as both BT and Virgin Media have publicly stated their plans to extend network coverage across Northern Swindon, the 4G scheme is no longer viable. Residents oppose the scheme planned for North Swindon for the following reasons;

1. The 4G scheme is a waste of money due to the commitment from other broadband providers offering superior network connections. This money can be better used to support council services

2. Allowing mast deployments in residential areas sets a precedent for other networks to request similar or larger infrastructure.

3. 50-foot masts ruin the visual outlook in residential and green areas.

Now there are reports that even Chiseldon residents have been severely disappointed in the performance of the 4G network deployed by UK Broadband on behalf of the council. Some residents are working with Virgin to provide a more robust service that suits the needs of modern families.

It is quite clear now that despite the Conservative Cabinet’s wishes, backbench Conservative Councillors will not allow the Tory Cabinet to rollout their 4G scheme to happen in North Swindon.

When Labour councillors called on the Conservative cabinet to spare taxpayers the loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds of their money by ending the 4G rollout in North Swindon, they refused. Now the Conservative group’s backbench councillors are blocking the rollout in North Swindon despite the money now being committed. It is quite clear there is a fissure in the Conservative Group over whether to rollout 4G Broadband in North Swindon or not and the loser is the Swindon taxpayer.

£3m of public money has been earmarked for this project (including a total of £1.78m made available by Swindon Council) and yet one faction in the Conservative group are deliberately wishing to pour some of this money down the drain. If there was ever evidence that Conservative incompetence has led to taxpayers money being wasted, it is here.

After the original Wi-Fi scheme where £400K of taxpayers money was lost you’d think they’d learn but this Tory administration never does.

COUN JIM GRANT

Swindon Labour Group Leader

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You are getting boring

THE EU referendum has come and gone and we have had the result that favoured an exit. Please can we now put a stop to all those letters to the SA bemoaning the decision.

It has been a constant case of backbiting from the usual contributers -- he said that and he said this -- and quite frankly the whole thing now is becoming rather boring.

All you Remainers - stop your griping and let us get on with making the most of the opportunities we now have to ply our trade to the rest of the world. Let’s now have the variety of letters that we used to have and move on. Think of something more interesting to write or complain about. You are all becoming so boring.

CHRIS HUMPHREYS

Fuller Close, Kingsdown

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Slow world’s growth

The climate change debate continues with all the experts saying we must take drastic action to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from our factories.

The many suggested ways to reduce greenhouse gases appear to have skirted around the subject of the world’s population explosion.

In 1960 the world’s population was only three billion.

It is now seven billion and is continuing to grow at the rate of one billion additional people every 14 years.

The highest growth areas also happen to be in the world’s poorest countries. If we are ever to get a grip on man made climate change we must include ideas of how to slow the rapid growth in the size of the world’s population.

STEVE HALDEN

Beaufort Green,

Swindon