It's sad to witness the centre of Swindon being slowly strangled by planners, supported by developers who want to buy up brownfield sites and build somewhat strange buildings to be rented out by pension companies who are looking for an income.

There is no one with a vision of what the people of Swindon want or need.

My family has lived locally for generations, and Swindon developed to meet the needs and aspirations of its residents.

Sadly, the driving force is the never ending vision of councillors to grow the town, delivered by housing developers, again driven by profit.

Even section 106 money is funnelled towards infrastructure that supports even more grandiose schemes. The work at Bruce Street Bridges and layout changes at Hawskworth are to increase capacity for people from outside the town to access the new Swindon that still has not been delivered. In fact no one can be found to finance it.

The Kimmeridge developers Muse are the ones that did away with Whalebridge roundabout and the stopping up of Fleming way, just to release more land for their speculative developments.

But what's the outcome? No access to the centre. Many years ago planners had the concept that the town centre would be a destination. Remove all through routes and encourage the traffic to use grid roads like Great Western Way and Thamesdown Drive to travel across the town. But the plan did not work because of missing parts, like no link from Thamesdown Drive to Barnfield.

Many years ago, when Fleming Way and Great Western Way was a twinkle in the planners’ eye, it was thought to have a flyover near the station over the main Bristol to London line to increase capacity above the designs of the Victorians who gave us tunnels under the line.

The result is the same for most people. I never shop in Swindon centre, ever. I prefer either Orbital or Greenbridge. For smaller specialist shops I go to Wootton Bassett or Marlborough. Then there is always the internet.

L Bowles Old Town Swindon