Guy Green raises good points and asks searching questions in his letter (SA 21 February) when he refers to the decision of SBC to spend £1.5 million on a national provider to improve broadband connectivity and speed to a specific area of the town.

Guy also makes reference to the council’s own abject failure with regard to the £400k farce that was Digital City which showed how officers and councillors were so easily fooled by a promise of riches which was never ever going to happen, and which even the most elementary of questions would have enabled them to avoid wasting a precious £250k of taxpayer money.

I hope that Guy would accept my own credentials in terms of examining the Wi-Fi saga and its supposed successor UK Broadband, plus my challenge to the principal architects of the farce.

In this respect I can give him some limited assurance that Councillor Garry Perkins, who was a Director of Digital City UK limited, the company which owes SBC £400k plus interest - received no remuneration during his tenure.

One might say he most certainly did not justify any payment based on his contribution, a sentiment which would find support amongst many Swindonians, especially those who are suffering as a result of the removal of council services due to lack of funding.

The £200k shown in the accounts was primarily the remuneration of the man who persuaded Councillor Rod Bluh that his plan would revolutionise Swindon and make it ‘the place to do business’.

He also led a willing council executive to believe that a £450k investment would return a net profit of £700k per annum, which to a reasonable person might seem a little far fetched but not to the corporate intelligentsia ensconced in the Civic Offices.

With regard to obtaining any clarity with regard to the repayment of the £400k, I suggest Coun Perkin’s claim that it will be ‘re-paid’ with 20 per cent interest, should be treated with the same degree of baneful disdain as many of the ‘off the cuff’ comments for which he is famed. There will be no repayment as Digital City has no money. The £400k will have to be written off and the people of Swindon will have to content themselves with those words so loved of politicians and council administrators, “if there are lessons to be learned we will take notice of them”.

Des Morgan Caraway Drive Swindon