Further to your article about Lydiard Park and the discussion at the Council Meeting last Thursday. I remain very concerned about this situation. Councillor Renard was given a number of opportunities to confirm care and control of Lydiard House and Park would not be transferred from council ownership under the Conservative options but eventually admitted he could not.

Conservatives and some Lib Dems then voted to look at options which may lead to the transfer of Lydiard House and Park from the council. The complaint from Conservatives about any use of the term “sell off” appears to simply indicate that assets will continue to be given away without receipt of any sale proceeds as proposed for our leisure centres and golf courses.

While they have been denying plans to sell Lydiard, pursuing the option of a trust or some such option is effectively saying that they do not want to keep it in Council ownership and management, which the Labour Group believes strongly offers the strongest long term protection.

There is now a clear line and choice for residents on Lydiard between Labour and the Conservatives and their Lib Dem allies.

The Conservatives accuse us of scaremongering but we do not accept this because there are valid reasons to be concerned about Lydiard.

The rest of the leisure centres and golf courses are being off-loaded under detrimental terms, and we are aware the country parks have also been designated as requiring further “commercialisation”.

This matter has been in the public domain for months. The Swindon Advertiser referred to the risk to Lydiard on 4 December last year.

The administration’s response then was to confirm that the country parks would be considered once the disposal of the leisure centres and golf courses had been concluded. It was only recently with an election approaching that the Conservatives denied there were plans to off load Lydiard before admitting this is indeed their strategy in their own council motion.

We have spoken to hundreds of people about Lydiard over the past few weeks and they are aware, like us, that what is offered or promised prior to an election doesn’t necessarily last once the vote is over.

For example, the children’s centres that were not going to close or the Haydon Centre, where prior to the Haydon Wick by-election the Conservatives denied plans to offload the leisure centre, only to subsequently reverse this and offer it to bidders. Councillors should be campaigning about issues that concern them and the people they represent. That is what the public expects us to do and wants us to do. Readers wishing to sign the Lydiard petition can do so at southswindonlabour.co.uk/lydiardpetition.

Cindy Matthews, Labour Councillor for Lydiard & Freshbrook, Tithe Barn Crescent, Swindon