THE planned radiotherapy centre at Swindon’s Great Western Hospital is badly needed, but when the plans were first announced a few years ago I never dreamed that we would have to pay for it ourselves through a charitable appeal.

Cancer treatment is, or ought to be, at the very core of the services that the NHS provides and it is shameful that the NHS locally does not appear to have the funds to pay for the facility itself.

In his column in your paper on May 27, Robert Buckland MP says: “Part of my plan for South Swindon is to enhance our local NHS.”

Before the election the Tories promised to increase NHS spending by £8bn.

The Swindon area should be getting its fair share of that money, and it is hard to think of a better project to benefit from it than the radiotherapy centre.

Will Mr Buckland please tell us why his Government is not funding it?

PETER GALLAGHER Folkestone Road Swindon