PLEASE add our names to those opposing this development.

We have resided in Swindon since 1958 and consider the Coate area to be of great benefit to the town and to the community.

We have signed the petition against this development, we have written to the council with our objections and now wish to record our views.

We have seen the plans for this proposed development and if allowed to proceed then this outstanding natural park will merely become another park within a town.

Swindon will lose an area of outstanding beauty forever and it can never be replaced.

When the hospital was built we were assured that no other development would follow.

Then the University of Bath's insistence that Coate is the only site for their development was followed by plans for student accommodation and private housing.

We were assured that any development would leave a buffer zone between the development and Coate but the plans merely pay lip service to this concept.

Next we will learn of the need to provide extra buses for students to visit the town centre clearly the university should develop in the town centre.

We find it incredible that so many unelected bodies proceed to carve up our countryside in spite of the thousands of residents clearly opposing this spoiling of an irreplaceable natural park. It is money dictating this debate not a true consideration of residents wishes.

Jill and Michael O'Brien

Old Town

Swindon