One could never call Councillor Garry Perkins anything other than an ‘optimist’ in that he believes in the Blair principle which generally means that 'if he said it - it must be' - the latest incarnation is to be seen in Coun Perkins assertion that “We were over optimistic with the time scales, given the economic situation”.

Coun Perkins is of course the man who demonstrated high levels of optimism when as a councillor and director he supported the over exaggerated claims from Digital City that they would provide free Wi-Fi to the people of Swindon. He will forever be remembered as the man who assured us that UK Broadband would repay the £400k plus 20 per cent which was loaned to the company of which he was a director. That loan has not yet been repaid and of course we know it never will be repaid.

What should concern the council tax payers of Swindon is Coun Perkin’s claim that the council could never have afforded to refurbish the Oasis – that is simply untrue.

The council could have borrowed the money to undertake the work in exactly the same way they borrow money to build car parks, commission an RDF facility or indeed to purchase a can crushing machine. The fact is that the council chose not to borrow the money and undertake the work – so it’s more a case of ‘would not’ as opposed to ‘could not’.

Coun Jim Robbins suggests that the Q&A session at Scrutiny was more bluster than giving concrete answers. Why anyone would be surprised is beyond me.

Des Morgan Caraway Drive Swindon