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Lions fireworks facts

I would like to answer several points raised by your readers (Lions Club cancels fireworks display, SA, February 25).

Swindon Lions Club has been going for 55 years, the last 45 years having a fireworks display at the Polo Ground, in that time they have raised over £400,000 – a high percentage from the fireworks display.

The reasons for the fun fair, stalls and fast food stalls (you do not have to use them) with their fee they help to pay for the display. The club also lay this on, together with music and entertainment from BBC Wiltshire to give the public a good night out, the cost being similar to Lydiard Park and others displays.

People should remember 100 per cent raised by Swindon Lions Club goes to good causes, a high percentage of which are local here in Swindon. The cost to run the club is paid by the members.

Should you wish to know more about the club, its activities or possibly to become a member, see our website http://www.swindonlions.org

Maurice Watson, President, Swindon Lions Club

It’s up to the parents

Once again it seems that Swindon and the surrounding areas are a haven for drug sellers and users. Nearly every day there is a drug-related story in the local paper.

On January 21 there was a really good article in the Swindon Advertiser written by Tom Seaward about a book written by local women headlined ‘Tale of sons’ drug fight is a book every parent must read’.

The book by Julie Rose and MI and SJ Cowell tells about how friends were addicted to drugs and eventually died and how these women tried to overcome the drug dealers. Look at the headlines everyday and do not bury your head in the sand.

One recent headline was ‘21 years for drug dealers’ but when you read the article it was a combined total for six people or three-and-a-half years each – just over 18 months with time off for good behaviour. The courts are not going to do anything about this. Parents need to take control themselves and deal with this problem.

It is estimated that drugs and drug-related causes kill more than 3,000 every year in Britain alone (millions around the world), probably more than Coronavirus will do.

As your reporter sais this is a book every parent must read. I started teaching in 1975 and finally retired for good in 2017 and over the years have seen many students with great potential have their lives ruined because of the drugs scourge. Do not think your child will not get caught out. I agree with Tom Seaward – every parent should read this book.

Pasquale Mazzotta, By email

Climate conundrum

Greta Thunberg’s climate rally saw thousands of young people decked out by their parents in clothing to keep out the cold and wet.

I wondered just how many of them looked inside the garment to see where it was made? No doubt the vast majority were from the Far East, made in sweat shops using electricity which is produced by coal.

No doubt many of the protesters will expect and want to own a car of their own in the future – how will it be powered? Many will say electricity, but where will it come from? At the moment wind farms and reusable sources will not be enough.

Then there are nuclear power stations – how about when the power rods have spent experts are still undecided where and what to do with them. They say encase them in steel or glass and bury them – where? These rods will still be active in hundreds of years time.

So the children of the future will be sitting in on damaging waste. Is that what the protesters of today want?

J H Oliver, Brooklands Ave, Swindon