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Gallery will boost town

MR CROOK has written a further letter opposing the proposed new Museum and Art Gallery in Swindon (21st June. We don’t want gallery).

His arguments seem to be that the community does not want it and it is economic folly.

To answer his first objection, the group has shown in the Swindon Advertiser at the launch of the Back The Bid initiative were invited representatives of some of the diverse communities in Swindon.

These included business people, heritage organisations, Friends of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, teachers and lecturers, community volunteers, artists, and politicians of all complexions.

No press ganging was necessary – indeed many people wanted to come but there was no space in the current gallery, which demonstrates why we need a better one.

We have received enormous support from all parts of the Swindon community for the new museum, especially from schools and also from businesses needing to attract and retain good staff.

Our first public meeting held in April ended with a show of hands of 140 for and six against, despite some strong questioning on the need and viability.

As to Mr Crook’s main opposition that it is an unwise use of council funds, I believe that he will be proved completely wrong.

The council’s commitment is from the capital account and could not be spent as income on services.

Its commitment will be multiplied at least threefold by outside investment into Swindon - and that is an incredible return by any standards.

You have to continue to invest in a business or a town even in hard times. And there is empirical evidence that a new museum gives a massive economic boost to a town.

Development round the museum will enhance the community and its creativity, will boost rental and property values yielding increased rent and rates to the council, will increase employment, will increase visitor spending and generally raise the spirits and the pride of the town people.

We will be holding more meetings around the town and want everyone to get involved as it will be their museum for them to enjoy and be stimulated by.

I firmly believe that the proposed gallery will be transformational for Swindon and give it the reputation it deserves for forward-looking enterprise and creativity.

ROBERT HISCOX, Chair, Swindon Museum and Art Gallery Trust

Salary unjustified

PATIENTS receive an excellent highly professional service from the clinical and nursing staff at the Great Western Hospital, which is however let down by its non-medical top management.

One of the three lifts in the reception area of this multi-storey building had been out of action for several months when I wrote to Ms Vaughan, the chief executive on April, 21 asking for details of the hospital’s arrangement for the maintenance of its lifts because the possible breakdown of a second lift would have very serious adverse effects on all the departments since these lifts are also used by hospital staff on the upper floors.

I have had no substantive answers to that letter, to my second letter, dated May 17 nor to my third letter, dated June 6. This rather high-handed behaviour in ignoring patient feedback is very poor public relations.

It is relevant to ask what management functions Ms Vaughan carries out to justify her high salary, (£172,500), higher than the salary of the Prime Minister or any Minister of State and 6.4 times the median Great Western Hospital staff salary (£27,090).

This multiple will only increase as all staff have annual salary increases; she will also have a pension valued at many hundred thousand pounds.

By contrast the median UK CEO salary (£91,617) is a more reasonable 3.3 times the UK median salary (£27,600).

Under a PFI agreement, Carillion Plc was responsible for the finance, design and construction of the Great Western Hospital and for over 30 years (from 1999 until 2028) will “provide Facilities Management services.”

Carillion now provides and manages catering staff for in-patients’ meals, staff for cleaning, porters for moving patients, the mail room, the switchboard, a help desk, pest control, minor road repairs, landscaping, window cleaning and vending.

With so many management functions contracted out, the salary of the chief executive appears hard to justify.

BRIAN WILSON, Eastbury, Hungerford

Tabloids foster hate

HOW depressing it was to read the SA’s front page (Hate Crime On Rise)June 23.

Although hate crime comes in many forms the most evident is racism, particularly towards the Muslim community where amongst the numerous incidents being reported include the Muslim woman having head scarves forcefully removed, mosques being attacked and vandalised and Muslim children being bullied and labelled terrorists.

When the mass selling right wing tabloids the Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Express on an almost daily basis depicts Muslims as enemies of the UK, when these same papers give many column inches to Nigel Farage, Katie Hopkins et al to spout their incendiary bile, it is no wonder that hate crime towards Muslims and others who are perceived to be migrants has increased significantly.

Free speech comes with responsibility, these mentioned papers have no idea what responsibility means. Maybe it’s time the editors of these papers are charged with inciting racial hatred.

MARTIN WEBB, Old Town, Swindon

Lesson of Ramadan

MUSLIMS have just finished a month of fasting. The holy Koran tells us that the purpose of fasting is to make us guard against evil.

A great evil prevailing at this time is the desire to take revenge for, perceived or real, injustice by hurting others.

Ramadan teaches us to control such evil desires. Hazrat Abu Bakr, a close companion of the Holy Prophet, would help a poor man regularly. This man spread false rumours against the character of Hazrat Abu Bakr’s daughter. In his anger, Hazrat Abu Bakr stopped giving this man money for food.

Upon this Allah sent a revelation upon the Prophet Muhammad asking how many would survive if Allah withdrew His benefits from everyone who wronged Him. This is the lesson we should have learnt from fasting.

But this is not restricted to dealings between Muslims. The Koran tells us that the whole of mankind is a single nation and that the Prophet Muhammad was sent to the whole of humanity with this message of forgiveness and mercy.

Let us open our hearts and not just forgive those who wrong us but to love and help them.

SHAHID AZIZ, President, Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore (UK), Butts Road, Chiseldon

Help for your quest

OH DEAR, it would appear from the letters by B Woodham, T Reynolds, and D Collins, they are all searching for a ‘magic money tree.’

As a proud and committed Corbynista may I please volunteer my help free of charge for them in their quest?

The ‘magic money tree’ if one cares to look at the ‘map of austerity’ is firmly rooted in the ‘tax evasion forest’ along with very many others of the same Genus, Latin name: ‘Robius porious disablous forous-richous.’

Quite a mouthful I am sure that everyone would agree, but very accurate in the Latin description.

However, the keeper of the forest, and a very good man to boot named Jeremy Corbyn, prior to the ‘General Election remapping’ produced a very helpful leaflet for these three intrepid souls, entitled ‘Funding Britain’s Future’ which I am sure would prove to be a very handy A to Z for them as they embark upon their quest.

However, a word of warning. Whatever they do, they must be beware of the bloodthirsty ‘Tory wolves’, and the very fierce ‘bear-bankers’ that inhabit the forest, and be very much on their guard, as these ferocious creatures don’t take any prisoners.

GA WOODWARD, Nelson Street, Swindon

Common sense fails

I HAVE kept my anger in abeyance over the last few weeks regarding the horrendous deaths of the young and old, in the Grenfell Tower holocaust out of respect for the dead.

Now it is time for a clear statement of my opinion. I turned over the TV one evening, and watched a male of Chinese features outside a tower block engulfed with flames, thank the Lord he survived.

I thought it was another disaster in a Third World country. It then began to sink in, this was in in London, our capital city.

The building trade which I left five years ago was full of health and safety zealots on high salaries.

Hard hats on a hot day, when nothing was above you high visibility jackets with no traffic in sight, not to mention gloves and glasses.

In the meantime I watched an unimaginable horror and loss of life. Due without a shadow of a doubt to these financial gravy train parasites’ failures in practicality and common sense.

BILL WILLIAMS, Merlin Way, Covingham, Swindon