I WOULD like to add comment following the front page story you ran on the 10th concerning the possibility of BBC television featuring the restoration of the Mechanics Institute next year.

I noted the deafening silence from the panelled walls of the council. Yet in the same week they grandly announce they would like get another lottery grant to enhance Lydiard Mansion, a house that was once occupied by the Bolingbrokes who were in the 18th century associated with the slave trade.

The timing of this takes one's breath away. For seven years the council has resisted all proposals to create a public asset in the Mechanics which enshrine the very spirit of the railway era yet are happy to do up one that does not. They hate to admit that there are people in the community who know more than they do about certain issues and the attitude to any grass roots movements to improve life in Swindon is "we won't talk to you because you don't know anything and we don't trust you". It is the people who put them in their nice, comfortable chairs not luck.

The people don't count when decisions are being made that involve great sums of money. The Steam Museum does not break even each year, its becoming an expensive turkey. The civil servants in council offices prefer no to be accountable to public scrutiny.

If the TV show featuring the Mechanics does become reality how many of those who chose to ignore its plight will suddenly start claiming the glory. I ask readers to remember these words when the right time comes.

J GROVE

Manchester Road

Swindon