I REFER to Caroline Giles's excellent letter 'Thumbs up for Football' last week and also congratulate Cllr Sandie Webb and all involved at Chippenham in securing badly needed football facilities.

In due course this will enable Chippenham teams in the Chippenham Sunday league to actually play their home games in the town and hopefully will encourage other teams to set up and compete in the Trowbridge and District Saturday league.

Chippenham's victory is another smack in the eye for Trowbridge. The football facilities provided in a so-called county town is just a sick joke. Already the town council have been publicly embarrassed over the Lambrok Road fiasco. True, work has now progressed but it is at least two years late in coming.

Mrs Giles suggests that Trowbridge is a town of empty promises. No one has said a more truthful word. Trowbridge is not just a town where planners cannot plan but is a town of all talk and no action with councillors blowing a lot of hot air.

We have teams now starting up as young as five: brilliant and hats off to all those who give up their spare time to run such teams who in subsequent years may just produce one David Beckham. If that happened I suspect the chains of office would soon come out to take all the glory and for doing what?

Mrs Giles quite rightly questions the validity of Trowbridge being the county town. I am sure the vast population would like to know what constitutes a town gaining such status. In this case it would be no surprise if the criteria were as ancient as the outlook of councillors themselves.

Local elections should not be about political points scoring but about people looking to serve the community and getting results that are not years or in Trowbridge's case decades down the line.

Next time, Trowbridge, there are elections don't bother; it is simply a waste of time.

T Penwell,

Trowbridge.