I'M A Swindonian through and through and I was once proud to say that.

JE Plumtree's letter regarding the demise of Swindon's heritage buildings is quite right, and I could add the Mechanics Institute to the list of historic buildings gone for ever or simply left to rot away.

Who cares about them?

But there's one building in Swindon I would like to get rid of and that's the former 1960s style Brown Brothers office block in Greenbridge Road.

It is blot on our landscape. With several floors of broken windows, it's an eyesore and a magnet for all kinds of vermin.

When removing the former occupier's name from the side of the building, the workmen left the letters that spell out ROTS for all passers-by to reflect on.

And rotten does sum up how I feel about the current state of some aspects of Swindon.

The main entrance to the new hospital is littered daily with cigarette ends and, even more disgustingly, with hundreds of pieces of chewing gum stuck to the pavement just outside the glass doors.

Perhaps the hospital is too good for us. Who cares?

Residential cars are now parked on pavements and grass verges throughout the town, causing grief to all pedestrians, particularly those with prams and those with disabilities. Do they care?

For more examples, just look at the excellent This Is Wiltshire News index archive web-page for the single month of May 2005. Many in the town either do not read the Advertiser or have very short memories. These all feature as news items in May:

l The Adver calls on Swindon residents to bring justice to the yobs who are blighting our town with graffiti. Police in West Swindon say the problem has got so bad that there is hardly a flat surface left untouched.

l Swindon Council has admitted it neglected its Youth Service after a damning Ofsted report.

l The Director of Swindon Racial Equality Council takes the view that race relations in Swindon could soon be at crisis point because Swindon Council has halved its funding.

l Vandals caused tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage to a special needs school in Nythe.'

l A 15-year-old teenager has been accused of mugging an 81-year-old woman in Swindon.'

l Moulden Hill Country Park in West Swindon is a scene of devastation after becoming a target of vandals and graffiti artists.

l Work to repair smashed graves in Radnor Street cemetery has been completed.

l The proposed development at Coate shows once again that democracy is being denied.

l A taxi driver was attacked with a six inch kitchen knife at Shaw Village centre.

Still proud?

M SQUIRES

Nythe

Swindon