The changes to the entrance to Monkton Park in Chippenham seem to have stopped, so assuming they were finished, I went to have a good look.

I was horrified, and sincerely hope they are not finished – as they are now, they are truly awful.

Clearly there is still much planting and growth to be done, but the hard landscaping, which does appear to be complete, is of such poor quality that I have only ever seen its like on TV’s Watchdog.

The Tarmac is lumpy, uneven and horrible, and in the time I was there I watched a duckling struggling to free itself, as its leg had become ensnared in the loose, scrappy trimming at the water’s edge.

Chippenham Liberal Democrats on both the town and the former district council argued for these improvements to the park entrance throughout the last council term.

We were delighted when the Conservative administration agreed to go ahead with them. Unfortunately it now seems that they have fallen foul of what the Tories term ‘efficiency’ – that is, spending so little money on something that what you end up with is simply not worth having.

This is hardly efficient, nor economical. It is surely a waste of every penny spent on the project, which looks to me like it is not fit for purpose and an insult to the people of Chippenham. Is that really what they think we’re worth?

Paul Darby

Chippenham Town Councillor

Hill Rise Ward

Greenway Gardens

Chippenham