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Sheer extravagance

With reference to the article in Saturday, 20th October, Mr Costello makes with regard to a banquet for the mayor, how can any council spend this amount of money when ordinary families are struggling to put food on the table or pay bills?

Surely SBC would look in better light had they put this sum of money to better use. Most days we read about how much SBC is in the red; spending anything not to do with services to the tax payer is extravagant.

On the same wavelength, why was the crossing on Queen’s Drive by the Magic Roundabout moved a few yards and how much was the cost again out of our taxes? Who can explain what difference it has made? The works went on for three months.

Another waste of tax payers money. Please explain.

Name and address supplied

Symbol of peace

As a proud wearer of the white peace poppy, I was most pleased to read in the Guardian (15 Oct) that the St John Ambulance is allowing its volunteers to wear it (white peace poppy) for the first time at this year’s remembrance services.

The white peace poppy can be traced back to 1933 when it was first sold by the Co-operative Women’s Guild and is not only a symbol of peace but also a symbol that remembers all the victims of war and also challenges militarism. The Peace Pledge Union that distributes the white poppy are hoping to sell 100,000 of them this year. If you want to be in the growing number of white poppy wearers than you can purchase one from the Pulse shop in Curtis Street, approximately 500 yards from the Rolleston Arms on Commercial Road.

Martin Webb, Swindon Road, Old Town

More fuel us

Oh to live in Royal Wootton Bassett if you own a car. The price of petrol and diesel must be the most expensive in the West Country.

I drove to Bournemouth a few weeks ago on a Sunday and on the way down I looked at the price of fuel in every place we passed through. Not one was as expensive as Royal Wootton Bassett. Driving up past the three petrol stations today, I see that they have increased the price again.

Why on earth do people ever go into them when they can drive down the road a few miles and save over £5 on a tank of diesel in Calne.

Oh to live in Bassett and pay through the nose for fuel. Have no banks, have no traffic wardens, and a British Legion nobody wants to join. Also spend pounds and pounds on a ridiculous large poppy that falls to bits after a few weeks. Have a non-caring county council who agree to have hundreds of houses built around the town but will not have extra doctors surgeries and schools built.

But you can have a Tennis Centre built for about 5% of the locals to use.

But at least we all live in ROYAL Wootton Bassett now.

John Stevens, Cloatley Crescent, Royal Wootton Bassett