RATHER than blame the council for "just waving through" the planning applications, Shirley Burnham, why not put the blame where it belongs - our true "government" in Brussels! Actually the Regional Development Agency, a department of the Brussels’ "government", which is based in Exeter, costs you (and every other council tax payer in Swindon) about £600 per year from that tax and has the final say in all planning application matters. Our council have little choice but to "wave it through", the same as they had to build on the Front Garden, go to fortnightly rubbish collections, don't have enough money to repair our roads and much else besides! They were told to get on with it and face massive penalties for disobeying.

To quote from the book How the European Union Works (an official EU publication) "The CoR (Committee of the Regions) have to be consulted on matters such as regional policy, planning, the environment, education and transport." It should be noted that the job of the Committee of the Regions is to "implement EU law" and "the application of EU rules may regulate or curtail the executive powers of devolved authorities and may have financial consequences for their budgets."

We have just had two opportunities to rid ourselves of this situation, the local and national elections but the people have said they are quite happy being ruled by a foreign power at both levels and so I suppose, really, we should just keep quiet and let the foreign dictatorship run (or should that be "ruin"?) all aspects of our lives. It is, after all, what the majority voted for.

GREG HEATHCLIFFE

(Chairman, UKIP Swindon Branch)

Okus Road

Swindon