I AM responding to your comment column on Wednesday July 24 and in particular to the suggestion that the New Mechanics Preservation Trust should have thought a little harder about issuing threats that could alienate the council; and the statement that the Trust will have to work with the council not against it.

Does not this serious issue deserve a two-way agenda, an even playing field for open discussion?

I deplore the concept that people should be silenced and bow to the power of any council and/or assumed authority when they, the people perceive that there is a gravely serious issue that needs to be addressed.

Councillors and anyone holding positions of authority, who possess moral fibre and who do not run with the hare and hunt with the hounds will respect the diverse views of others and listen to their needs.

Had the Trust spent seven years worrying about whether or not their views and their cause was popular with the council, this historic building would never ever have stood a chance to rise from the ashes and symbolise the history of Swindon in the past, the present and the future!

MARY RATCLIFFE

Old Town