PLEASE can you publish our concern over recent changes in Thamesdown timetable for bus No 22.

More than 12 Common-weal school children are being left stranded at their Bath Road/Goddard Avenue stop for 40 minutes because they do not have enough time to get to the stop by 15.39 when the number 22 arrives, due to the new timetable.

The school day ends at 15.35pm and one week of monitoring pupils shows it would need to take just four minutes for them to race along The Mall, Okus Road and Bath Road to catch a bus home to west Swindon, which is impossible.

And a 40 minute wait for the next bus in winter darkness is unacceptable. Thamesdown has not taken school finishing time into the equation.

All we ask is for a five minute wait earlier in the route. If this bus left at 15.44 instead of the new 15.39 all 12 pupils can physically reach the bus in time and travel safely home.

We know they will say that it is not in their business interests to make this change, but as a compassionate and community spirited public service, subsidised by the council, we think it is ethically the right thing to do.

Please encourage them to respond positively and swiftly.

(Mr & Mrs) M W DAMS

Westlea