Houses were cheap back in the 1960s

Martin Wicks (SA, June 23) tells us how rising house prices makes it hard for young families to buy or rent in Britain.

It was our 47-year membership of the EU that created the housing shortage. I can remember that back in the 1960s that houses were cheap and rents easy to afford.

But in 1973 Britain joined the Common Market and the British economy collapsed. The 1970s included an oil crisis, high unemployment, high inflation, a miners strike and a three day week.

Forty seven years of open borders created a housing shortage and this caused the working class to hate the EU. Britain is now short of four million houses. It will take at least twenty years to sort out this mess and by that time the current generation will be too old to have children.

Steve Halden

Beaufort Green

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Push to increase vaccination rate

Looking at the vaccination data on June 23 its seems we have 53.9 per cent of our population over 18 fully vaccinated.

This remains below national average and 10 per cent below the town of Weston-super-Mare which has a similar population to Swindon. Looking to what they are doing differently there in particular they have opened vaccination centres in central locations and are actively targeting students. One at the Winter Gardens in participation with Weston college so that its easy for their students to get vaccinated. Another centre at Boots in the town centre is also busy doing vaccinations. Our approach of using pharmacies in outlying areas like the Lawns and Highworth and using Steam, which is also not directly in the town centre seems ineffective compared to Weston and other towns with higher vaccination rates.

Especially considering SN1 has consistently had low vaccination rates and 20per cent of the local population does not have access to cars. We do also seem to be relying too heavily on the vaccine bus which because of high infection rates in Bath will be used there more often now as it is part of the same regional health authority. So why not pop-up centres at Boots for the town centre and Swindon college to specifically target students?

In Weston this appears to have been driven by the regional health authority, so what is ours doing on this issue? Is Bath a higher priority for them? Maybe our public health team and politicians can make the necessary moves to getting these issues dealt with by working closely with them and making sure Swindon gets the support it deserves?

The quicker these measures are taken the quicker we reach herd immunity.

Jonathan Sheldrake

Firefly Avenue

Were lessons learned from past roadworks?

A key element of project management is the ‘lessons learned’ review.

Did SBC do one after the Bruce Street roadworks and, if so, would it care to share it with Council Tax payers? Of course, it is not just roadworks. Does anyone remember the station forecourt?

Once again residents are being thanked for their patience when we are not given any other option.

Derek Lowson

Westlea

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