I have been mentally ill with depression and extreme anxiety since the year 2000. I spent three visits of seven months at a time, very close together in Applewood at Sandalwood Court. I have been helped by the mental health team and my GP and without them I would not be here now. I am much better now but still have trouble much of the time with anxiety.

My community psychiatric nurse looks after my mental health needs and when I get very unwell he refers me for an assessment at Oak Lodge. I have been helped by them for many years, spending up to two weeks, of their kindness and very useful help. The staff are all members of the Mind Team.

I am one of the most regular guests at Oak Lodge and feel very grateful for all the help I have received over the years. Through Oak Lodge I found out about Mind and I attend every week.

I am a volunteer as is my husband. Oak Lodge and Mind are a lifeline to us and it gives me and my husband, who is my carer, time to be apart but he knows I am well cared for.

The thought of Oak Lodge closing in April next year fills me with fear. What will happen when I so desperately need a safe place to be, with so much care and kindness?

I hope that some funding will be found and this much needed service will survive.

Mrs S Sanders Cheney Manor, Swindon

Amazing show

Last week, my small grandaughter and I attended a a highly enjoyable performance of Joseph and the Amazing Techicolour Dreamcoat at Immanuel Church, performed by the young people from churches in and around Swindon, in aid of Breakthrough Breastcancer.

I had forgotten just how jolly, tuneful and entertaining this short Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is.

In a simple church hall setting, I was very impressed with how these fifteen young singers and actors produced a slick, fast moving and highly committed performance, whilst obviously enjoying every moment of what they were doing.

Everyone deserves commendation, but I must particularly mention narrator Emma Whitworth, who cemented the show together with some quite sophisticated singing and acting, and Samuel Hosier who played Joseph, a young man from Church on the Rock in Hungerford, who sang and acted splendidly and played a very believable Joseph with a touch of arrogance that gave the whole story real credibility.

A young man with a future, I think.

Congratulations to director Natasha Black, producer Jane Whitworth and band leader Geoff Walters for bringing out the best in a small group of talented and committed young people.

Janice Thompson Singing teacher and JTPTrust director Norman Road, Swindon Wardens brilliant I live in Penhill and we have the Neighbourhood Wardens here. They have done several things for me, not to mention just recently when my husband was in ICU for three months and sadly died.

They have removed a lot of things for me and last week I had a very heavy settee to be removed and it took three of them an hour to dismantle and remove it.

They do such a lot for people and I don’t think people realise. They are there in confidence if you have problems with drugs in your area, noisy vehicles riding up and down and helping out in certain situations with animals.

I had a new settee delivered and the delivery men said they were on a time schedule and left it. I was in tears and I phoned the wardens and they were round in 10 minutes. I want people to realise what a brilliant job they do for the community as well as in the winter, for us oldies, they grit out paths too!

Mrs M Mays Longleat Gardens, Swindon

Not so green

Swindon Council’s Economic Strategy has the achievement of a low carbon economy as one of its six priorities. Could Councillor Williams please tell us how cutting the bus services to the hospital is compatible with this?

Mary Melot Folkestone Road, Swindon