Car park lights blaze away at all hours

It was really good news to read recently that the street lighting upgrade programme is nearing completion resulting in a considerable saving and improving the towns carbon footprint.

However, can someone please explain why, with the modern technology of sensors and time control lighting, in all the multi-storey car parks, all the lights on all levels are blazing away 24/7 and in one case the car park is closed and securely locked for half the week costing the rate payers in excess of £10,000 a year.

If the council don't understand this technology, may I suggest, that they go to the public library and use one of their toilets, where they will see this technology in in operation.

Over to you!

Gerry Taylor

Newcastle Street

Swindon

Brexit nothing like Ukraine's struggle

Your leader, our Prime Minister is at it again. Lying. “When the British people voted for Brexit, in such large, large numbers…” As we know, 52 per cent for, 48 per cent against.

At that time, you said that should such a small difference result, it should not count, changing your tune when the vote went minimally in your favour.

Then, at the Conservative Spring Conference, for Johnson to liken the UK’s decision, in any way, to today’s tragic situation in Ukraine, is beyond crass. The EU is hardly Russia!

We did not escape a tyranny, I am sure you will agree. We were grossly misled, as to the benefits of leaving, by the likes of Johnson, Farage, Gove and others.

Perhaps a check list of benefits would now be timely. A new deal with the US?

Once again, our now side-lined PM has made us the laughing stock of Europe and beyond. Any influence we had has gone.

As with Thatcher (the Falklands War saved, temporarily, her premiership) Johnson has wriggled out of dismissal upon the back of a tragedy elsewhere. About time the Conservative Party made a move, for its own self-preservation.

James Saxton

Zander Road

Calne

Pensions timebomb needs govt action

It’s nearly 10 years since automatic enrolment was launched and in that time 10.6 million more workers have enrolled into a workplace pension scheme, with an additional £28.5bn saved annually.

Despite this huge success, there remains the question of whether the average auto-enrolment member is saving enough for the retirement they want.

Our new research shows that most savers and employers are anchored to the minimum 8 per cent rate, with most wrongly believing that they are on track for a ‘moderate’ or ‘comfortable’ standard of retirement living.

There’s a growing consensus across the pension industry that an increase in contributions is required to improve the retirement prospects of millions.

But with so many questions around how this could or should be done, we’re calling on the government to set out plans for a review of the minimum contributions required for auto-enrolment.

While people living across Wiltshire are rightly concerned about the increasing cost of living, a very real problem is building up for a significant proportion of the population in their retirement and it is crucial that the government comes up with a plan to tackle this.

Phil Brown,

Director of policy

B&CE

Provider of The People’s Pension

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