Mary Cockbill, 68, of Stratton Road, is the wife of the late Trevor Cockbill, the printer, author and campaigner renowned for his encyclopaedic knowledge of the old Swindon. Here, she opens her heart about the Swindon of today.

I hear that the poor Mechanics' Institute has once again changed hands, and no details given of what is to become of it.

My late husband Trevor will be turning once more in his grave in anger that this, his beloved Mechanics', is still ignored.

It is an absolute disgrace that Swindon's most important historic building still fails to be restored for the people of the town, or at least indigenous Swindon-ians.

I say this as so many people do not live in the town, including council officials, yet our future is in their hands. People who contribute nothing towards our council tax or don't care about Swindon just go away each evening and leave us to live with their horrors, which they deem are not for them.

They spend our money on consultants, Lydiard House (which was Bolingbroke the slave trader's house), stupid clocks and other monstrosities that nobody wants anyway.

Swindon, alas, is now lying in the gutter, her lifeblood ebbing away in the alcohol and excrement which flow along them.

All Swindon consists of these days is pubs and clubs which constantly multiply and devour large areas of the town centre. There is nothing, it seems, for people of my generation or non-drinkers.

In any case, so many people are frightened to venture into the streets, even in broad daylight, for fear of attack.

The Mechanics' Institute is an ideal setting for culture, remembering its long and distinguished history and its invaluable contribution to the Swindon of yesteryear and today.

It belongs, by right, to the people of Swindon.

It was tragic that the Locarno burnt down. It was a place I knew in my youth as I went skating there and was one of the stiletto heeled dancers although shoes were frequently discarded whilst dancing.

It was our local dance hall when we were student nurses at the old Victoria Hospital in the 1950s.

But hopefully the fire has stopped this building from becoming another bar, or at least put off the day when yet another historic building is put to the wrong use.

It would have made a far better cultural centre, art gallery or museum in Old Town than its present proposed use, and it is certainly of more historic importance than the Arts Centre.

Swindon will never receive its longed for city status.

Its heart has been ripped out, it has nothing to offer. The past is systematically destroyed, the present state of the town is unacceptable to so many of us, and the future looks bleak.