IT may well be that some of our local parish councils can provide better quality and more efficient services than Swindon Borough Council can. 
But to propose the imposition of a parish model on the non-parished area of the town without putting the proposal to a local referendum is something else entirely.
As your report indicates (SA, March 25) those who spoke at the public meeting at Lethbridge School on March 23 were universally against the idea. 
The meeting had the benefit of hearing from the council’s head of finance what residents might have to pay through the parish precept.
This information is notably absent from the council’s leaflets and was not readily available at the drop-in sessions. Coun Elliott’s reported comment that “some may have supported the idea as not everyone spoke” is clutching at straws.
Over the next three months Swindon residents will be visiting polling stations on two occasions: May 5 and June 23. 
That gives Coun Elliott and his colleagues two opportunities to hold a referendum on the parishing issue at very little extra cost. 
They should take one of them.   
PETER GALLAGHER
Folkestone Road, Swindon