I listened with great interest to the condemnation of the encroachment on villages by Swindon's ever-expanding boundaries.

How many Swindonians recall Rodbourne and Haydon Wick being small hamlets, or Stratton just as a village?

But people have to live somewhere.

What about using all the empty office blocks or brown field sites?

Swindon Borough Council wants city status even if it means just another few acres of green fields being lost to the bulldozer.

If your village just happens to come within these boundaries, it's tough.

But one good thing may come of it. The villagers who were pushed into the towns by the yuppies who paid through the nose to live in these villages, they shall have the last laugh.

Swindon has become too big for its boots. Unless we stop or slow down its growth, the views to the Downs will become just another memory.

Trevor Wilson

Langford Grove

Old Walcot

Swindon