Letters: January 24, 2017

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Parishing problem

THE borough council is in serious debt and the situation is likely to get worse. This year’s budget has been undermined by the Conservative Government who have reneged on the agreed financial settlement.

This has meant the council’s Conservative administration has to find more savings.

Up to now the Conservatives have used their voting advantage to get what they want instead of what residents want. They could use their electoral advantage to have set the council taxat a level to match the grant cuts. Instead they have used their mandate to imposed parishes against residents’ wishes.

They have sacrificed the council’s economies of scale advantage for the more expensive individual costs of smaller parishes.

A council administration’s first responsibility is to the electorate instead of using their political advantage for their own political party.

The Community Governance Review was farcical for many reasons. And no individual resident asked for the review. The reviewIt suited the Conservatives’ objective of imposing parishes so they could transfer services and raise local taxes to pay for them again.

The carve up of the town to provide new parishes appears to have been to provide political advantage rather than identifiable communities with something in common. Far from improving local democracy it has shown the ConservativeS were not interested in residents’ objections to the impositions.

Alternative cheaper models were proposed. After all, why have four new parish clerks costing about £180,000 when one would do?

Previously the Conservatives used their political advantage to impose a Conservative-led parish in Nythe. They intend to expand this Parish at a time when it is not even Quorate.

I have raised a conflict of interest in this matter where the parish council chairman has been allowed a vote to expand the Conservative-led parish.

At the time I raised the conflict question I did not know about any council tax paying difficulties.

Previously, councillors have not been allowed to vote in similar circumstances.

It would have been more sensible to set the precepts in 2018. They are now being rushed through based on incomplete information.

The Conservatives are briefing on absurdly low precepts to divert residents away from the real cost of their imposition. In 2018 things are going to get more expensive because the Conservatives intend to transfer more services to parishes.

So please remember parishes did not have to be imposed, there are cheaper ways of delivering services and this has all been done to save the Conservatives’ political skins.

BOB WRIGHT

Councillor for Central Ward, Swindon

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A Remainer who lost

I AM in awe of the mercurial talent of Adam Poole to write a lot and say nothing new (SA 17 Jan).

His latest attack contains so much nonsense I don’t know where to start by way of a response.

Safe to say that in Mr Poole’s land of makebelieve there was no exaggeration, dishonesty or deceit in the Remain campaign, only “dishonesty on an industrial scale’ by those advocating Leave.

It is such myopia that negates so much of his argument, and discovers his true feelings.

Let us be persuaded by his own words “it is this dishonesty that totally undermines the result and means that it must not and will not ever be accepted” to which of course one should add, only by Mr Poole and his keenest supporters.

As for his claims that the Leave campaign called the EU ‘corrupt’ and that levels of immigration has an effect on public services and wages - I suspect he really is a lone voice in the wilderness if he wishes to argue these claims had no foundation whatsoever. Even ardent Remainers have conceded both claims have merit.

To equate the vote on June 23 with 1930s Nazi Germany will be offensive to many people who carefully considered how to vote in the best interests of themselves, their family and their country. Having listened to the hyperbole from both sides, the voices of experts and the warnings contained in the Government-produced handbook, they made their choice.

Adam Poole lost and a very bad loser he has turned out to be.

DES MORGAN

Caraway Drive, Swindon

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Don’t rush to A&E

WHY is it that we seem to be getting more and more paranoid regarding the NHS?

When we have people just presenting themselves to A&E because they can’t get an instant appointment with the GP no wonder the hospitals are getting overburdened.

Then of course we get people going to A&E because they have drunk too much or taken drugs. who really dont care that they are possibly stopping someone getting emergency treatment without which they may just die.

Have we all lost our common sense? If you have a severe cold and can’t get an appointment with a GP then most of us take a cold/flu medication and go to bed. and sweat it out. The same applies to Flu in most cases, (especially if its Man Flu, isn’t that right ladies?) In an emergency you can always phone 111 and get someone there to give you some relevant advice.

Our doctors, surgeons and GPs are doing a good job. Everybody seems to think the NHS is there for them personally. We know there really isn’t enough money to fund everything, so stop whinging. You would all complain if your taxes and NI contributions went up by a large amount.

We have some of the best medics in the world and they are there for you when you really need them. Not just to pat you on the head and tuck you into bed.

Would it really hurt us all if there was a charge to see a doctor? Not an enormous amount but just enough to deter the time-wasters.

I think our NHS is one of the best in the world, they can’t get much better than they are and this applies even though they are over-stretched at times.

Just think before you rush up the hospital for something that really is a minor problem.

DAVID COLLINS

Blake Crescent

Swindon

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24-hour help expected

MAY I be allowed to respond to Dr Swinyard’s views on TV recently?

Dr Swinyard, why is it that you and fellow doctors do not operate for longer hours these days?

You, and fellow medics, expect to have electricity, gas, sewage, water and breakdown services for 24 hours each day. This entails personnel to work a shift pattern, seven days a week.

Also, should any of the utilities fail, you all expect the required service personnel to respond, whether day, night or weekends, regardless of the weather conditions, or festivals.

AN OCTOGENARIAN

Address supplied

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Toilet closure is drastic

SWINDON isn’t the first town to close its bus station toilets, however, it’s a drastic measure to take.

We are told the decision was made because of anti-social behaviour and vandalism. The usual reasons made by local councils: They are uneconomical to run.

Swindon Council has already used this latter line of excuse when they closed the toilets not so far away on the other side of the Fleming Way underpass.

The council says the public will be redirected to another facility in Wharf Green - that’s a bus ride away for some poor souls.

Anyway, how do they propose to do that, put up extra signs? Or perhaps they intend to paint a green line on the paving showing the way along The Parade and Canal Walk to Wharf Green. You might laugh.

What about all the people who have to rely on walking frames, and those who have already endured a long bus ride then have to change buses at the bus station to go to the hospital?

If anti-social behaviour is the real reason behind the closing, why should the whole of Swindon, and may I dare say what’s left of Swindon’s reputation, suffer because of a mindless few?

Interestingly, the SA stated it was only the men’s toilets that were to close. If the authorities can’t keep control of what’s happening in the gents, how on earth can they stop the the opposite sex from entering the ladies? Good excuse to close the ladies, I guess.

WILLIAM ABRAHAM

Rodbourne

Swindon

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Concorde memories

Your “What happened on this day” item, SA on January 20 is a bit misleading. As you say January 20 (I think maybe it was January 21) 1976 was the inauguration of the commercial supersonic service by British Airways from London to Bahrain and by Air France from Paris to Rio but this has no claim at all to attract the accolade “maiden flight” as your caption to the photograph says.

By January 20, 1976 (my birthday!) most of us who had been involved with Concorde design at Vickers South Marston, had departed for pastures new.

If there has to be a date agreed for a true maiden flight of Concorde, it was seven years earlier, on March 2 1969, when the French-built prototype Concorde 001 flew for 40 minutes taking off from and and landing back at, Toulouse.

The British-built prototype 002’s first flight was from Filton (Bristol) on, I believe, April 9, 1969 and was to our local RAF Fairford airfield, because the Filton runway could not accommodate a landing. Subsequent test flights were then made from Fairford.

TERRY FLINDERS

Queensfield

Swindon