IT IS quite a long time ago, almost a year, since I wrote to Swindon Council and to the Adver asking what was happening to Groundwell Farm, an historic Georgian farmhouse with Jacobean fireplaces in North Swindon which was my home for some 15 happy years.

The farm became a focus for many up and coming bands and performers and we did a lot for local people through the craft workshops.

I still bump into mums and dads from Penhill, now with their own children, who remember the farm with affection, so why isn't it being restored now?

Is the developer being frustrated by Swindon Council as seems to be happening in the case of the Locarno and certainly happened with the Mechanics Institute?

It is no good council officers bleating about Lydiard Mansion when other vitally important buildings are being neglected.

I notice Swindon Council is extremely good at putting planning restrictions on buildings so that the developer is put off or loses interest altogether because of spiralling expenses.

Why are they so good at passing the buck and so extremely slow at granting permissions for anything apart from traffic lights to annoy motorists?

Groundwell Farm has been empty since 1996 seven years.

The Locarno and the Mechanics Institute have been empty even longer. This is an indictment of Swindon Council's inefficiency

Lydiard is a beautiful building but one swallow doesn't make a summer.

R STREDDER

Blunsdon