PLEASE keep your letters to 250 words maximum giving your name, address and daytime telephone number - even on emails. Email: letters@swindonadvertiser.co.uk. Write: Swindon Advertiser, 100 Victoria Road, Swindon, SN1 3BE. Phone: 01793 501806.

Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters.

Our lives are affected

IN reply to John Stooke (May 11) he has not considered how the rise in Britain’s population has affected peoples lives.

The population of this country has increased by five million since 2004 according to Eurostat the EU statistics office.

There is freedom of movement within the EU so the British government has no power to control these figures.

These additional five million people all need somewhere to live and they have put pressure on public services such as the NHS.

The trend is for net immigration to continue at around one million every three years.

Even though we have voted to leave the EU there is no sign yet that immigration into Britain is slowing down.

John Stooke must realise that at least part of the referendum Brexit vote was because ordinary people felt that the Government should take back control of our borders.

STEVE HALDEN, Beaufort Green, Swindon

Different directions

IN reply to Don Reeve’s letter 2nd of May, we both seem to have a similar pattern of poor boy made good. His upbringing on a council estate in Swindon, his parents leaving him nothing. My upbringing in the slums of the East End of Glasgow, my parents leaving me only memories. Then our paths beg to differ.

I have no doubt in my mind he earned his corn, as they say in Wiltshire. By hard mental work, regarding accounts. I have done the same for charitable organisations accounts as well as a self building project in Swindon.

It is a pity his hard endeavours in accountancy as well as his accomplices never stopped Swindon council in 2013/14 paying one million in debt charges at our expense. I am too scared to look at the present figures. We must then part company. While the heaviest thing he picked up was his clipboard in a secure job with the council with central heating, I was working in a self employed bricklaying gang.

No guaranteed future employment when the job finished. No government handouts in time of need, no holiday pay. Lifting concrete blocks in all types of weather, no job security. Travelling all over this island to put bread on the table for my wife and children. Paid by results, rain or frost no pay. Fair enough, my choice.

But to be honest, I still manage a few pints at the weekend. But I find it rather offensive, as many of us do, that part of my council tax from my basic state pension is supplementing your lifestyle at cost to my own. Let us let the readers decide on that one.

BILL WILLIAMS, Merlin Way, Covingham, Swindon

An insurance job

I NOTE in the Adver on Wed 10th May, that Audrey Hunt was wondering what had happened to the Borough of Swindon sign on the M4 which she felt was a sort of ‘Welcome’ when she was driving home.

I can’t be sure, but if someone had crashed into it or damaged it, the Borough Council would probably be waiting for the driver’s insurance to pay out before the sign is replaced or re-established.

This is what normally happens as far as I understand it.

That may not be the case but it is just a thought.

CHRIS GLEED, Proud Close, Purton

Foster carers needed

IT is currently Foster Care Fortnight and The Fostering Network has said there is an urgent need for 480 more families in the south west to come forward to foster, especially those able to foster teenagers and groups of brothers and sisters.

As a foster carer I have seen how important it is for children to grow up in a safe, loving and stable environment, and how foster care can transform the life of not only a fostered child but also a fostering family.

I would urge anyone who thinks they have the skills and experience to be foster carers to pick up the phone to their local fostering service or visit www.couldyoufoster.org.uk

DARREN HARMAN-PAGE, foster carer, C/O The Fostering Network, 87 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8HA