Gazette 12/11/20: "A councillor has suggested reopening Oakley station." That councillor said: "We know that most people that live in the houses we build do not work in Basingstoke."

Gazette 22/10/20: "A study to improve connections between the M4 and M3 and could also see a train station built in Chineham." The same councillor quoted above cited experts who told a committee meeting previously that the plans (to make the A33 dual carriageway and build a train station at Chineham) would "render Basingstoke a dormitory town for Reading's businesses". And that would "damage" Basingstoke's business parks.

Now make your mind up one way or the other, is Basingstoke to some degree a dormitory town or not? Well the truth is it has been a dormitory town for decades.

People travel to London and Reading to work and have been doing so for ages. My daughter used to work in Reading about 27 years ago, and travelled back and forth by car, a journey she frequently moaned about because of the volume of traffic and the single lane on our side of the border.

In my opinion a dual carriageway to Reading and a railway station at Oakley and Chineham would be brilliant. Connectivity is the key-word to success, improved transport routes would very probably enhance Basingstoke's business parks, not harm them.

Brian Simmonds, Belmont Heights, Hatch Warren