New radiotherapy unit

Now the councillors and officers involved with the planning committee have done everybody in the borough proud.

The road between an idea and reality in these cases is long, but one of the most important milestones is the legal go-ahead for the work to begin in earnest.

In contrast with certain other projects affecting local people over the years, impetus among officials in relation to the new treatment centre has so far been strong.

Valid questions have been raised and alternate scenarios explored, but there has been no petty point scoring or needless quibbling over inconsequential matters.

This surely reflects universal acknowledgement of the need for such a centre in Swindon.

The ordeals undergone by some of the cancer patients who must make their way to Oxford for their gruelling treatment are a cause for sorrow and outrage.

That this situation has continued for so long is a cause for shame.

Patients who are already in the midst of perhaps the greatest stress they have ever known must either deal with public transport, hospital transport or make their own arrangements.

As patient Roy Gobey told us: “It was horrendous travelling to Oxford every day, absolutely horrendous.”

It is now to be hoped that further milestones on the road to completion of the centre are passed with similar ease.