In support of the letter from Neil Bristow (EA, May 7), can I point out that it has just been announced that extensive roadworks are to be carried out along Great Western Way to provide better verges, cycle paths and footpaths etc, all in West Swindon.

The voters of Gorse Hill, in their wisdom, have just re-elected a Labour councillor, and in this area of Swindon, in Pinehurst Road, we have one of the worst road surfaces in the west (Beech Avenue is not much better), that the shopping centre at the crossroads must rate as one of the worst in the west, that we have the fiasco of the speed tables in the centre of Gorse Hill and that the shopping centre itself is now half empty due to shoppers going elsewhere where planners have let bigger outlets be built.

Can anyone who voted for the Labour candidate actually say what value we get in Gorse Hill? Can you imagine Freshbrook Drive being left in the state of Pinehurst Road?

Take a look at the road that runs between Headlands Grove and Wheeler Avenue. It was crying out to be resurfaced, but what did the council do? Answer a botch job of Tarmac squares up and down the road; a mess that will soon break up. I told a colleague last week, before the elections, that if the Labour Party put up a parrot for election, as long as it was wearing a red rosette, it would be voted in.

T Reynolds

Wheeler Avenue

Swindon