Letters: January 11, 2017

Junctions danger

FOLLOWING on from the letter from Steven Blanchard on January 7 about Greenbridge Roundabout I would totally agree that the traffic management of this very large project was brilliant.

Yes there were delays but nothing of any major significance.

However, like Steven, I was also very concerned about the potentially very dangerous situation at the junctions of all the approaches to the roundabout.

There has already been one accident that I am aware of and I have seen at least six vehicles which have stopped beyond the exits onto the roundabout using the line from the inner lane as the stopping point!

In fact, before Christmas I was in touch with my local councillor alerting him to the potential dangers and he has apparently forwarded my concerns to the Highways Department, and it seems they have responded by placing “Give Way” signs at each exit.

Wouldn’t it have been more sensible to put down proper line markings at each exit, or was this not done because in the near future we are going to have to face the prospect of traffic lights at each junction for 24 hours a day?

Surely a roundabout obviates the need for traffic lights, except maybe at peak rush hours such as is in place at Mannington and Bruce Street.

In fact I would go so far as to say traffic flows better when the lights are not on than when they are.

Let us hope that when everything is finished the situation will be reviewed to make sure that everything does in fact work as it should.

One other observation I have is that on all the approaches there are now three lanes, except on the main approach coming out of town on Drakes way where it remains as two.

This does seem strange since I would have thought that this road carries the highest volume of traffic on to the roundabout and would have been the most important to have been widened to three lanes.

I would love to have been a fly on the wall at any of the planning meetings which approved the plan for the roundabout as I am sure a lot of it was decided on by a non-driver who probably lives in Reading or Bath.

MIKE LARGE Stratton St Margaret, Swindon

Libraries are needed

IT’S AN absolute disgrace to be cutting the library budget by £1.5m and yet be ploughing £5m into the new museum and art gallery.

Libraries provide an invaluable resource especially to the disadvantaged whereas a museum and art gallery is a nice add but hardly necessary. It will also serve a very small demographic.

The need for libraries has been highlighted with the poor educational attainment shown in the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and Ofsted report.

Further, with the Government’s agenda of digital by default and the increased need for people to access Universal Credit online there will be an increased need for places where people can use IT equipment, as well as get the help they need to fill in the online application.

Not everyone has access to the equipment, the skills to use such equipment, or both.

The recent Libraries Ambition document published by the Government’s Libraries task-force urges councils to consider a Libraries First strategy in delivering all its services, as libraries are well placed to do so in the community. This has not been taken into account in Swindon.

Libraries contribute to all aspects of council services, including social care where reading for health purposes and even reading for pleasure have proven and evidenced benefits on health and well-being preventing people from having to use health and social care services early on.

Cutting library services will, in the medium to long term, cost more on the social care budget than is saved.

It is a very short sighted and short term view to decimate the library service to the extent that has been proposed and already voted through.

I cannot agree with the cut to library services at the expense of unnecessary frivolities such as the white elephant that is the museum and art gallery.

Please put the money back into libraries where it is needed, where there is a statutory duty and where it will save money by reducing the burden on social services.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

Help boost nurses

THE RCN is asking readers to sign a petition (www.rcn.org.uk/nursingcounts) demanding an end to the one per cent cap on nurses’ pay.

Public sector pay restraint has seen nurses wages drop in real terms by 14 per cent since 2010.

It was recently announced that MPs would receive a further 1.4 per cent pay rise this year – MPs will have received pay increases amounting to nearly 14 per cent since 2010 - and yet the Government has maintained a one per cent pay cap on NHS staff, who work long shifts during unsociable hours trying to keep the nation healthy.

Nurses enjoy a rewarding career that really makes a difference but they must be wondering what they have to do to merit a pay award which reflects the value of their work.

There are 24,000 nurse vacancies across the UK. Our NHS is already struggling to cope with hospital bed shortages, long waiting times and understaffed wards.

More than ever the Government should be encouraging people to consider nursing as a career and ensuring staff don’t leave.

The evidence is strong that nurse numbers have a direct impact on patient health.

The RCN needs to collect 100,000 signatures for Parliament to consider nurses’ pay for debate. By signing readers could make a difference.

JEANNETT MARTIN Director, RCN South West region

Crisis is no surprise

SHOULD we be surprised by what the British Red Cross is calling a “humanitarian crisis in hospitals across the country”?

The NHS, like all the public services, has faced nearly seven years of Tory austerity, that has seen public services decimated – how is it possible to keep underfunding something and expect an adequate service in return?

These cuts are being made at the time the Tories have earmarked £200bn for the renewal of Trident and are happy to see companies and rich individuals syphon billions in unpaid taxes out of the country each year.

All those who support the Tories’ austerity agenda are as complicit in the destruction of the public services as the Tories are.

MARK WEBB Old Town, Swindon

Stop destroying town

I AGREE with everything that CE Billings wrote (SA January 3) about the Health Hydro.

I have lived here since 1965, when there was a pride in the town’s heritage and its old buildings. But now all the council seem interested in is building houses, and not looking after the old buildings we have left.

Swindon has been left to run down, never flowers to add colour, rubbish everywhere and all the bins are overflowing.

Where does all our council tax go? It certainly isn’t going on the roads or town centre. Leave the Health Hydro alone as there are other buildings you can turn into flats. Try spending our money on something good, and stop destroying what’s left of anything good in the town.

L TOWNSEND Rodbourne, Swindon

A chaotic strategy

IN A predictable burst of enthusiasm for his Prime Minister, Justin Tomlinson (Adver Column 6/1/17) writes: “As we look to exit the European Union and respect the democratic will of the people, Theresa May has confirmed her commitment to get the right deal for everybody.” Everybody? The Economist accuses her of having done “strikingly little” to show for her term of office so far and suggested her strategy for Brexit was “increasingly chaotic.”

It suspects that she is guarded about her plans chiefly because she is still struggling to draw them up.

“Theresa Maybe.”

J ADAMS Bloomsbury, Swindon

Stop the speeders

AS OUR roads get busier and more dangerous the issue of excess speed needs to be addressed.

Why not force car manufacturers to put bright red LED digital speed readouts on the front and rear of all new cars? Cameras could then pick up speeders instantly without police intervention.

Maybe then manufacturers could concentrate on making cars that do 140mpg rather than 140mph.

ROGER LACK Swindon

Trump is our friend

IT HAS started to become an insidious event now, whereby some self-opinionated overrated actor left-winger, uses a captive audience to express an unsolicited political statement.

What I find abhorrent in such political propaganda, is that it uses an unsuspecting public audience to cast venomous smears, in this instance against President-elect Donald Trump, who will be a very good friend and ally of Great Britain.

COUN PHILIP WINTER (UKIP), Southmead Road, Filton Park, Filton, South Gloucestershire