I can’t let David Powell’s letter pass without comment (letters, February 27). David has apparently lived and worked in a very sheltered environment.

May I open his eyes to the real world of Chippenham?

Chippenham now has become a dormitory town with little or no industry, but with, as he said, top-class schools and an ever-increasing number of care homes.

In other words, it’s a good place to grow up in and to die in, but between the two it has nothing much to offer these days.

He writes about all working together. How about working with Wiltshire Council instead of attacking them at every available opportunity?

If the town council had, then perhaps the Stanley Park sports ground would have been built in the right place, and not requiring access via two adjacent fields, at an additional cost of some quarter of a million pounds.

He writes about the first-class facilities. What are these? Apart from the Olympiad leisure centre, which the town council doesn’t recognise or publicise because it was built by North Wiltshire Council, now Wiltshire Council, the enemy, politically.

Having worked and lived in Chippenham all my life I find it very sad to see the decline (yes, David, it has declined) from what was a busy town with a strong market background, backed by a major industry, into, as I said before, a dormitory town with little or no heart.

Peter Slatter, Elmwood, Chippenham.