Letters: April 11 2016

Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters. Please note, the Adver will not be printing letters on local political subjects until after the elections in May.

Orange army on march

OVER the years that I have put pen to paper I have knocked failures by getting letters published in the SA.

But over the past few months Network Rail’s Orange Army really went to town on Greenbridge to do all they had to do to get that mountain of a job done.

They not only got it done but did it under time and got the road open to everyone’s delight.

They provided loads of information about their progress and what they where doing – it was a brilliant bit of PR, well done.

Most Sundays I have to travel to the Bushton area to see my greyhounds, who are in kennels there and, of course, there are more works going on at the bridge that side of Royal Wotton Bassett.

I have to use the new road laid across the fields so everyone who needs to travel in that area does not need to go 36 miles or so out of their way.

It also provides the emergency services with access and I have to admit again its been extremely well planned and well laid.

If this is a temporary road I really am impressed, it is so tidy I could not believe the care and consideration to detail Network Rail have put into this. It is a pleasure to use.

Maybe you could leave it there and RWB might not have to have so much traffic going through it.

On the other hand, maybe the army that did Bruce Street’s new road layout might want to take a bit of guidance from the Orange Army on how to keep the general public on side and make massive changes easier by keeping the them onside.

JOHN L CROOK

Haydon Wick, Swindon

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Getting priorities right

WE HAD a flyer from Dale Heenan delivered this week telling us all in East Swindon about various road improvements from now until 2021 to facilitate the 8,000 new homes to be built in East Swindon.

There was no talk of a new hospital, doctors’ surgeries, schools etc and this town cannot cope with what it has now.

I would have thought before any more housing is built the priority is a new hospital.

Already we have new estates being built from one side of the town to the other, a hospital that cannot cope and waiting lists to see a doctor.

We will all be back living in the Dark Ages if all this building goes ahead without any infrastructure being put in place first.

This council seems to be oblivious to these problems, they only seem to be interested in housing before any talk of the infrastructure to support it (except roads, for which they get a government grant).

Just wait for the queue for the hospital to be from one side of town to the other and for it to take two weeks to get a doctor’s appointment, or there are no places in our schools for our children.

Put a stop to this new building now and get the infrastructure in place first.

Who in their right minds would close a hospital and build a new one with fewer beds then build on every green space available and wonder why it cannot cope?

R ELLIOTT

Merlin Way, Swindon

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Marginalised Christians

RECENTLY, Richard Page, a magistrate of some 15 years standing, was removed from the bench by the Lord Chancellor, and suspended by his local NHS Trust in Kent.

This was essentially because of his beliefs about marriage and family life as he could not agree with his fellow magistrates that placing a child into the care of a same sex couple was in “the best interests of the child.”

He was reported, reprimanded and forced to attend “re-education training.”

What kind of social engineering is this? Shades of George Orwells’ 1984 spring to mind.

It would seem that one of the first casualties in this “re-education” is our Judeo-Christian heritage,which has been the bedrock of our nation for centuries.

In todays Great Britain,it would appear that it is increasingly difficult for Christians who hold to what the Church has believed for 2,000 years to have any role in public life.

Readers may think I am “scaremongering.” I believe I am not.

At the moment Christians who hold to the biblical narrative, are being marginalised and removed from public life and, if we are not vigilant, the time will come in this nation when Christians who make a biblical stand for the faith could very well be facing prison for their principles.

That would be a very dark day for this country. What we are seeing happening to Richard Page and many others is, perhaps, the start of persecution of Christians in Great Britain.

STEVE JACK

Shrivenham

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Vote ‘leave’ to save jobs

WITH the news that steel making in Port Talbot is likely to end soon I wonder why we are still being told that it is only by staying in the EU that we can “safeguard” jobs?

We are told “three million” depend on being “in” but this has long since been shown to be a disingenuous claim.

The truth is it can be easily demonstrated that by being in the EU it is costing jobs.

EU state aid regulations make it illegal for the UK government to help any British industry by grant aid, loan or tax break.

Such practices distort competition in a way that is harmful to citizens and companies in the EU.

Thus the UK government, of any political flavour, is unable to help while we remain an EU member.

Furthermore, in 1975 the UK surrendered all rights to stop the “dumping” of cheap products on UK markets, something we could only end by leaving the EU and retaking our seat at the World Trade Organisation.

Again, regardless of the party in No. 10, we could not have prevented the Chinese off-loading their steel on to us under the existing regulations.

Currently three new ships are being built for the Royal Navy and hundreds of new tanks, and other vehicles, for the Army.

These are being built using foreign, not British, steel because EU procurement regulations mean the MoD are unable to show legally a preference for our own steel.

At a time when British plants are closing, our government is forced by rules made in Brussels to turn its back on our steel producers.

Even worse is yet to come; if we remain “in”, the EU Energy Directive 2020 will add an additional 40 per cent to the cost of electricity as it forces the UK industry towards inefficient, unreliable and very expensive forms of energy.

Outside the EU we could have prevented much of this with short term loans or other temporary assistance to the steel industry.

We could also have removed the high costs of fuel to the industry, making British steel much less expensive on the world markets.

These are all verifiable facts which readers need to be aware of when casting their votes in the referendum.

TONY MOLLAND

Former chairman

Devizes UKIP Association

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Council grant cutting

LAST month Wiltshire Council found it necessary to reduce their Youth Service to just seven employees for the whole of the county.

They are also considering re-organisation of the library service to include reductions in the numbers of paid staff.

All this is due to cuts in the grant from central government.

Last month Mr Osborne found it possible to reduce Corporation tax and increase tax thresholds which disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

Need I say more?

C R WEBBER

Compton Bassett

Calne

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Consultation saving

WE HAVE the furore over a senior government minister resigning, apparently over his disagreement with public spending cuts.

Perhaps our local councillors should reconsider their spending cuts that affect the elderly, young and most vulnerable people in our society.

The latest of these is the closure of the public toilets and all the meaningless political rhetoric that surrounds that issue.

The taxpayer is also seeing more cuts to the public transport system, making it difficult for people without cars to get about.

But we have yet to see any cuts to the way our local governments spend money on their political aspirations, which are costing millions of pounds.

In these austere times they would be better spent providing the services for which the taxpayer is contributing to through local taxes.

One area of savings is to stop public consultations because our councillors and managers have already taken the final decisions ahead of any consultation: This I know from attending such events.

TONY FELLENOR

Farleigh Close, Chippenham

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Reorganise authority

IT WOULD seem at first sight the downgrading of town and parish councils a retrograde step and particularly the lack of information about changes to the buses.

Most of us in Chippenham, who wish to travel to Bath, Swindon or Bristol using our bus passes are reliant on rumour.

The old Shire county structure which is a feature dating back to a pre-Saxon time continued into Norman times has been destroyed first with Avon and then BANES, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.

Why not do away with district councils and revert to having local issues decided by the towns and parishes?

Why not select regional government with an elected chief executive, who could make policy decisions on housing, land use, planning for transport and energy generation.

After all, education has already gone from counties to Trust Boards and in some places the Church of England is making a good a job of running schools.

Regional governments can more appropriately direct EU funding to deprived areas than central government.

Let us keep government local.

PAUL B GODWIN

Chippenham