Following on from John Beale’s letter, (March 13), relating to season-ticket prices for 2012/13. I would like to add my views to his.
As he suggests, the 48 per cent rise for concessions definitely needs to be justified and yes it is these supporters who can least afford an increase of this magnitude. However, he does not mention that non-concessions are ‘only’ rising by 24 per cent.
How unfair is that on the concessionary supporter? The current rate of inflation is 4.05 per cent. In April, the state pension is rising by 4.61 per cent.
Another matter that needs to be mentioned is the instalment plan which attracts an administration fee of £35 per ticket. This is fair enough but when you arrive at the bottom of the application form you find, in the small print, that you are required to pay a further administration charge of £5 if paying on a credit card or £2.50 if you use a debit card. An admin fee, on top of an admin fee! I thought the Government was trying to prevent this sort of business practice?
I believe the reason behind the harsh increases is so the club can increase the manager’s salary for next season to prevent other clubs from poaching him. In other words to increase his wages by an awful lot.
If my thoughts are correct an increase in season-ticket prices is somewhat justified, however not to the extent that the club is imposing, particularly for concessions. I pay full price, my wife is a concession and somehow we have to find an extra £152 for next season’s tickets and that’s only if we can afford to pay before March 31, 20 weeks prior to the first match of next season.
Jon Ellis Chicory Close Swindon
True founders
Mike Spry’s letter of March 10 had me thinking of Swindon as it was before the war and the Swindon of today. Couple this with the arguments currently raging on who is the best politically to run the council.
After the war, the Swindon population of 68,000 was a typical market town where farming stock was brought to market every Monday in the Old Town, while down the hill stood the railway workshops, the progeny of the Great Western Railways and Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the commercial centre of the town.
To picture Swindon then, if you walked from the Town Hall east for five minutes, you were in the countryside with fields, cows, the lot. If you walked from Stratton crossroads along Whitworth Road and Moredon Road to the north and west, again countryside, and again west from the bottom of Kingshill and Westcott.
With the GWR workshops now nationalised and other factories such as Garrards, Plessey and Vickers, Swindon needed workers and so Swindon was the destination for the overspill from London, casualties of the Blitz and the council set about building homes for them.
Politically, Swindon has been a Labour town. If you had Conservative leanings and wanted to be a councillor, you called yourself an Independent.
They did creep out of their holes in the 70s, but as for running the town, the Tories were never in the frame.
The town now has a population approaching 200,000, no longer a market town but one that should have city status, although not a necessity, a town waiting for its true founders to take back the ruins of leadership. I rest my case!
M J Warner Groundwell Road Swindon
Save the Locarno
As a local UKIP enthusiast, who has shown the party flag several times in Old Town and Lawn at local Council Elections, I regret the recent statement by a Mr Ed Gerrard at a public meeting, suggesting that the Locarno, aka Corn Exchange in Old Town Square, should be demolished.
I hope any future local administration will preserve this very fine and beautiful structure of the Italianate tower by both compulsory purchase and refurbishment and reinstatement of vehicular access between The Planks and The Square.
The current situation, besides being heartbreaking for those who admire the tower structure, is also a considerable hindrance for access to The Planks car park, which remains under utilised and a source of great frustration to the residents of The Planks road, not to mention the Masonic Lodge.
N Gardner Carlisle Avenue Swindon
National treasure
Alan Dempster is, of course, completely correct when he says that the Queen always acts on the advice of her ministers in respect of state visits to and from this country.
Were we to substitute an elected President, as J Adams would prefer, he or she would be subject to exactly the same constraints; this is how a constitutional Head of State in a parliamentary democracy is expected to behave.
This does of course occasionally lead to unwise recommendations, as when in 1978 the Socialist Callaghan Government asked Her Majesty to receive the appalling communist Romanian dictator Ceausescu and his wife; it is understood the Queen and Prince Philip found this pair the most unpleasant couple they had ever had to stay at Buckingham Palace. To compound his error, Callaghan recommended that Ceausescu be awarded a knighthood, hastily withdrawn on the advice of Margaret Thatcher just one day before he was executed in the Romanian Revolution which restored democracy in 1989.
As far as Prince Philip’s celebrated comment when he was asked by the Government to visit the President of Paraguay is concerned, this is in fact a classic example of His Royal Highness’ famously dry sense of humour, which has helped to make him a national treasure for so many years.
Clearly, however, its subtlety is lost on Mr Adams, though hopefully it registered with General Stroessner.
In Diamond Jubilee Year our two most famous pensioners will no doubt continue to serve their country magnificently as they have always done, to the accompaniment of widespread acclaim.
C Linfield Bakers Road Wroughton Swindon
Sweets Galore
May we, on behalf of our daughter, Petty Officer Lorraine (Lorry) Osman, thank Sue and her colleagues and customers at Sweets Galore for their kindness and generosity by buying an extra bag of sweets so that there are shoe boxes sent out to lads and lasses, who are serving in Afghanistan.
We send shoes boxes out to our daughter with sweets from her childhood favourites. The problem is that when she receives her boxes, all her colleagues come out of the woodwork to taste the sweets, to see if they have the same flavour they remember from their childhood. By the time Lorraine turns round, her sweets are gone. Bless them!
Having a box sent directly to them where they work (they look after the Sea King Helicopters); they don’t get the chance to get treat boxes, as many of the boxes are addressed to the soldiers.
To the lads and lasses of the Fleet Air Arm Branch at the RN, thank you for all your thoughts and your generosity by sending your treats to them. As our daughter said, “they are like kids being let loose in a sweet shop”. Once again, thank you very much.
Peter & Marian Osman Greenmeadow Avenue Swindon
Open all hours
I recently spent a day with a friend in Stow on the Wold and on returning home to Swindon I found a catalogue for one of the shops there on my doormat. The company, I've learned, is actually based in Swindon – Scotts of Stow – and I have written to them asking if they would consider opening a shop in Swindon to add something a little different to our town centre.
I also felt that an open letter to them in your newspaper would would be worth a try, after all, as a local business one would expect them to “do their bit” and support our town centre!
Jenny Mallings Beechcroft Road Swindon
Beware of scam
Today I received a call from the maintenance department of a computer firm, whose name when I enquired was unclear and muffled. I was advised that I had problems with the hard drive on my computer.
Immediately spotting a ‘scam’ I decided to asked the nature of the problem and if they had my computer.
They replied no – it was in front of me – and did not reply to my request how they knew of the problems, to which there was a mumbled and unintelligent response.
To my question was this a scam, the line went dead.
I believe this to be a variant to an earlier scam that was reported in the Advertiser.
I had a call on that occasion and it was dealt with in a similar manner. I write to remind your readers of this latest incident and to remain alert.
Glyn Harris Dunraven Close Swindon
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