You know that an election is looming when the Conservative Party once again in its leaflets claims the exclusive credit for saving Wroughton’s green fields.

In actual fact, Wroughton Parish Council has had a consistent policy since at least 1999 of giving priority to brownfield development, successfully opposing greenfield exploitation and coalescence with Swindon urban area, and preventing any major development south of the M4 from being even a part of the Swindon Local Plan.

The many victories against greedy and unsustainable greenfield development, including Marlborough Road and Berkeley Farm, are entirely due to the consistent arguments put by the parish council to the borough council planning committee, well supported by local residents, irrespective of their party political affiliation. The Neighbourhood Plan for Wroughton is itself the result of these policies, tested against the experience of Wroughton residents, which the Tory election leaflet manages to support without actually mentioning that it was produced by the parish council and circulated to every household in Wroughton for their consideration.

Where the parish council is mentioned in the leaflet it is in the form of an inappropriate claim, on behalf of their newly selected candidate for the borough council: “As a former clerk to the parish council Cathy’s experience and understanding of local issues is second to none.”

While I would not wish to comment on the employment of any member of staff, past or present, it is perhaps necessary to remind your readers of some general issues: The parish council employees, including the clerk, are not elected but appointed to do a job of work on behalf of an elected council which makes the decisions.

In the course of their work they are presumed to be free from party political influence, particularly the clerk, who must advise the council impartially.

Any person who has been elected one or more times to represent their local community can properly claim to have “more experience of local issues” and thus be more representative of their community than someone who has never even stood for office until this moment.

Councillor John F Newman Wroughton Swindon