TWO weeks ago, my husband had a letter from the DSS informing him of our pension increase, £3 a week for him and £1.10 for me.

Oh good, I thought. Then the bad news. Council tax up by 15 per cent, which is £2 gone for a start. Never mind, still £2.10 left. But the council has not finished with us yet.

Next to go is our Gold Card. The council takes away the old ones and charges us £5 each for the new ones, then puts up the price of swimming from £2.80 for our four swims to £7.20 for the same four swims. That is swimming off the menu then.

Now what? Well, summer is coming, so instead of swimming we will sit in our garden only to be informed that the council, along with Stratton Parish Council, is proposing to put a skateboard park in the school playing field at the bottom of our garden which we understand will be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 52 weeks of the year with no supervision, no toilets and no peace.

As we are in our 70s and on limited income, moving house is not an option, so to all you councillors who voted for these increases I have this to say. I hope you all sleep well in your beds at night, as we certainly won't be able to.

J BROOKES

Queensfield

Swindon