It’s election time, but who should I vote for? Having followed the shambles of the Mechanics’ Institute and now the Locarno, having encountered Mike Bawden’s volte-face on Coate, his arrogant treatment of those wondering why the Croft school was ever put forward (“We can do what we like” and on another occasion “children die outside schools”), and Coun Foley’s refusal, by turning her back, to engage in discussion with the same group; having seen the recent spat between Councillors Bluh & Bawden; having not received a single election communication where I live (Shaw), I don’t know where to turn for information. My mother-in-law (also Shaw) showed us the Conservative leaflet she’d had; all I can say is that the signatures on the bottom looked as if they’d been written by primary school children – I was not impressed.

A previous correspondent asks why there is not a ‘none of the above’ box on the ballot paper. My mother-in-law is, for the first time, refusing to vote, in protest. I feel I should do more – so, for the first time in my life, I intend to ‘spoil’ my ballot paper by writing ‘none of the above’. What a shame that we do not do what they do in Australia, which is for voting to be compulsory, but to provide a ‘none of the above’ box to tick. Thereby it would be much harder for any political party to claim it had a mandate.

Chris Barry The Bramptons Shaw

Roads can’t cope

I would want to see figures before I could be persuaded that closing Queensfield from Cricklade Road in the three-hour morning “rush” and the exit to Cricklade Road in the afternoon two-hour “rush” increases traffic in Hathaway Road. If it does then the rats must be even more intellectually challenged than I suspected. I accept that there may have been a short-term increase before the rats learnt the new maze but what is gained by using Hathaway Road instead of Queensfield?

The narrow sharply winding roads of this estate built in 1962 and having no halt or give way signs or white lines, were not designed to take constant 30mph traffic, especially with parked vehicles on both sides of the road. It is not for me to comment on the design intentions of those who built Hathaway Road but obviously the residents of that road feel the same about their back yard. That being so, it is surely up to them to lobby for a ban on through traffic and maybe buses only at peak times. I’d be happy with that if it improved their environment. A unified, equal handed, traffic planning policy from SBC, using some of the money from the developers of the newer anti-rat design estates would be even better but I don’t see many leaflets or letters from would-be council representatives advocating that policy.

“A small minority of Queensfield residents” did not cause this problem, SBC did and all this anguished accusation and beating of breasts, whether from Hathaway Road or elsewhere will simply let the new council off the hook. A small boy just went past my house using a scooter in the road (ie. not on the pavement). I wish he were able to do that on the busier, eastern side, of the estate and if that makes me a nimby then such I am proud to be and shall so continue, unless or until everyone can come together and try to agree on an overall solution.

T G Flinders Queensfield

Cooking up a problem

Having suffered an irreconcilable breakdown with my cooker, I recently took the step of trying to revive my faded culinary instincts by purchasing a halogen oven.

That was a month ago. It stands forlornly on the kitchen worktop, unused, looking like a cross between a spacesuit helmet and a deep sea submersible.

As for recipes, all I know is what was included as an afterthought at the back of the instruction manual: how to cook roast leg of lamb, lamb chops with mint sauce and something called pavlova, that I could just as easily do with six eggs in my back pocket, bending over and touching my toes a couple of times and warming up my backside by the fire.

The net promised a plethora of sources all promising me their free halogen oven recipe downloads.

Unfortunately, as many others had discovered, managing to download them is quite another matter. Not that this presents an insurmountable problem, it just means going to a bookshop and trying to find a book of halogen oven recipes.

Failing that, I can always give the thing to an ocean-going survey team for use as a remotely operated sea-bed explorer or donate it to the BBC Dr Who studios at Upper Boat, Pontypridd.

John P Hunter Kerry Close, Shaw