Thank you Wiltshire Times for publishing the good news story regarding the new Trowbridge Civic Centre. As you rightly stress, this most significant asset to the town is on course to be delivered on time and within budget.

There is one other positive aspect I would like to emphasise.

Trowbridge Town councillors only gave their consent for this development after a careful and independent scrutiny of the business plan concluded it could be built without increasing Trowbridge Council Tax annually any more than the annual rate of inflation.

When you contrast that with the open-ended, cash hungry proposals that were embodied in the plans for the old Town Hall you can see that the right decision was made.

Previously the Wiltshire Times has written that the Town Hall work would cost in the region of £3m. That is utter nonsense. Once the feasibility study was thoroughly examined; refurbishment, adaptation and modernisation were estimated at being well over £5m.

As with any conversion of an old listed building, problems were bound to occur as work progressed. This would inevitably escalate costs. Since then building costs generally have increased and building regulations have been tightened. Furthermore the old Town Hall could provide nowhere near as many facilities as will the new Civic Centre.

However the crucial deciding factor came from a series of packed public meetings regarding the cost of the Town Hall project. Here it was patently obvious that Trowbridge Council Tax payers were strongly opposed to having their taxes regularly increased – remember it started with an 82 per cent increase – to pour money into the bottomless pit of that vanity scheme.

It was the strength of that public feeling that led a few of us on the council to bring about the abandonment of the Town Hall project and develop the more financially realistic and socially beneficial alternative of the Civic Centre. With a few months we can all appreciate the correctness of that decision.

Jeff Osborn, Trowbridge Town councillor, Chepston Place, Trowbridge.