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Shameful decision

The planning officers who voted to grant planning permission to build a Travelodge, Starbucks and a drive thru Subway (SA Thurs Aug 10) should be ashamed of themselves.

I don’t expect any of them live anywhere near the site and then to read that two councillors didn’t even seem to know where the site was, it should have only been voted by people who know the area. What is the point of having consultations on anything when the council don’t take a blind bit of notice of anything the local people say?

And the office from the highways team to claim that the addition of two drive thrus wouldn’t noticeably increase traffic flow is out of his tiny mind. The traffic is bad enough as it is. Bruce Street Bridges are a disaster still when the traffic increases and the jams down Rodbourne Road are horrendous.

MRS TOWNSEND, Redcliffe Street, Rodbourne

Benefit madness

Britain is caught in a rising house price spiral. The more we spend on housing benefit the faster house prices rise.

200,000 homes could be built every year with the £24 billion we spend on housing benefit.

That many new houses every year would cause prices to fall and put a permanent end to the housing shortage.

The vast amount we spend on housing benefit mostly goes to private landlords. It fuels the house price spiral.

Rising house prices mean that the cost of housing benefit will increase every year for the foreseeable future.

STEVE HALDEN, Beaufort Green, Swindon

One-man elite

Mr Smith (SA 080817) thinks the problem in Venezuela is caused by not enough socialism. Maybe it’s the wrong type of socialism. Just like the wrong sort of rain we get in Britain that stops the trains from running. The left always find excuses when “there’s no more money” and socialism inevitably collapses under a mountain of debt.

Mr Smith’s comments about the rich elite made me smile. The only elite remaining in Venezuela are President Maduro and his wife. Their combined personal wealth is estimated at millions and is now reputedly safe and secure in a capitalist bank account, far away from the ideology they have inflicted on the Venezuelan people.

As Maduro sets about crushing the last democratic resistance to a dictatorship state, there has been some surprise that Jeremy Corbyn refuses to condemn him. Why would he? Venezuela is his socialist baby and Corbyn has long admired its radical left wing regime. His Labour party is now full of men and women who want to bring Venezuela to Britain.

I’m still waiting for someone on the left, to give me an example of a prosperous socialist country, anywhere in the world.

T MORE, Capesthorne Drive, Haydon Wick