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A sad state of affairs

Swindon Half Marathon may not happen in 2019 - why? The organisers are struggling with the financial side of it this year due to having a forced 8am start which will impact on participant numbers.

Apparently it’s one of the bus companies complaining of disruption to the services. The council is also charging £60,000 for road closures. Are they looking to make money out of the organisers?

Yes, there was some travel disruption last year, the first year of the new half marathon for Swindon, but that was outweighed by thousands raised for charity. Swindon as a town is doing something positive and there was a real feelgood factor after the event.

Bath, Bristol, Cheltenham, Chippenham, Oxford, Reading, even Cricklade all host successful half marathons, so why not Swindon?

Will it join the Mela festival, the big TV screen in Wharf Green and others in being defunct? What a sad state of affairs.

Darren Pettit, Swindon

Mystery tracks

All you knowledgeable historians of Swindon’s yesteryear, I’m a new moonraker only having lived here 38 years.

Across from my house is an alley and then access, where I walk my dog to a green (well patched brown at present because of the African Summer). A yard in are metal tracks that last all of ten feet. We are in the location of the community centre on our left of the Savernake Street Community Centre.

What was the track obviously long defunct? What purpose? Narrowish of gauge, what mode of item did they once bear? I know we are a prestigious and famous railway town but surely not a miniature train. What then? Can some person steeped in the background of Old Town help me scratch the itch of frustration of the short lines from the past?

Brian Mansfield, Pembroke Street, Swindon

Save police money

I think I’ve found a way of allocating a little more finance to the police as obviously the police precept part of the council tax that was recently added is still not enough.

Why not do away with the Police & Crime Commissioner and the newly appointed deputy as I have not seen any improvement in general policing in my area, at least, from the time the original office was initiated.

I have lots of time for the police but, as they need more resources, plus the fact that we managed before without the commissioner, do we need them?

Perhaps others have noticed improvements, but not me. The Commissioners do not seem to have the wherewithal to stand up to the government in the strongest terms possible. For fear of losing their jobs, I suspect.

Chris Gleed, Proud Close, Purton

Fighting for sight

This week leading eye research charity Fight for Sight is launching a campaign to raise awareness of eye health and the desperate need for more research funding.

This is an issue close to my heart. Very many people of my age are starting to have difficulty with their sight and right now there are over two million people in the UK affected by sight loss - a figure set to double by 2050.

The answer lies in research. Breakthroughs have already led to pioneering treatments that have transformed people’s lives – for example, cataract surgery which today takes just twenty minutes and benefits hundreds of thousands of people every year.

However, eye research remains woefully underfunded.

A Fight for Sight review shows that just one per cent of public grant funding went to this area last year. While investigations into stem cells and gene therapy offer hope for the future, there is much more work to be done.

I hope others will join me this week in supporting Fight for Sight to achieve the next breakthrough, so we can build a future where everyone can see.

Rt Hon. Baroness Betty Boothroyd, House of Lords