COMMONWEAL School is an asset to Old Town, just as the Baptist Tabernacle was an asset to Regent Circus and New Town.

One of the reasons the council quote for the necessity to rebuild the school, is its age. There are two schools in Old Town, namely Lethbridge and King William Street, that are considerably older than Commonweal and are not, to my knowledge, under threat of rebuilding. In fact, Lethbridge has recently had an extension built.

It seems pretty clear to me that the council is using Commonweal to open the floodgates for developing the Front Garden, a project which is high on their agenda but is not wanted by the residents of Old Town because of the congestion this would cause.

We also do not want the 150 or so houses they propose to build on the Commonweal site, for the same reason.

There really does not seem much point in holding local council elections, when the wishes of the tax-payers are totally ignored.

J Lucas.

Old Town, Swindon