Category: Uncategorized

I’m not sure what the senior management of Bach Homes, the developers of the Locarno, are on, but it seems to be very strong stuff. The housing market has nose-dived, Bach Homes are in administration, yet, if their managing director is to be believed, it is business as usual for the Locarno development.

The proposed developments at Victoria Hospital, Wootton Bassett and the Locarno are not affected by this administration and finance is being raised to allow these developments to commence early next year.

Seems he hasn’t noticed that credit is a bit difficult to get at the moment, unless your creditworthiness is perfect. A company in administration hardly fits that description.

Art is a subjective thing, so it shouldn’t be surprising that opinions vary on the ‘art’ that now adorns the hoardings surrounding the barracks in the Railway Village. What’s more surprising is that Mr Perkins seems not to be aware of these differing views.

It’s a remarkable piece of artwork. There is a difference between graffiti and street art. I haven’t heard any complaints about this art. It lightens up the area. And now the talented artists are looking for other areas to show their work. It really is very high quality work.

If he hasn’t heard any complaints, perhaps he should try listening: it’s something councillors should try from time-to-time. I’ve heard several comments about the ‘art’ and none of them have shared Mr Perkins’ view. The closest any have come to praise is to observe that it’s better than the plain white hoardings surrounding the numerous demolition sites in central Swindon.

Yes, there’s a difference between street art and graffiti, but there is similar ‘street art’ in Swindon that has been illegally produced without the permission of the owners of the walls and fences it is on. Whilst this particular example is better than the tagging that would no doubt have appeared if the hoarding had been left painted plain white, encouraging this sort of decoration needs to be done with caution to avoid similar illegal defacement elsewhere.

I’ve previously written about the Swindon Local Involvement Network (though the information on the council’s website is more informative than their new website). Swindon LINk is now progressing… to a fully fledged bureaucracy. The administrators appointed by the council to support the group are currently trying to recruit a ‘Start Up Group’. The principle task of the group during its six-month existence? To set-up another group.

Tasks of the Start up Group

• To plan the setting up of the LINk Steering group
• To agree a development and engagement policy for LINk membership
• To develop and agree a work program for the LINk
• To develop a terms of reference for the theme based working groups
• To agree expense policy
• To develop the relevant policies for Swindon LINk
• To agree a complaints policy

All that for a group with a mailing list of just over forty people. And note the mention not just of a steering group, but of talking shops working groups too. This little group seems set on creating a web of committees more akin to a government department than to small players in the provision of local health services.

If they really want to match their name and involve local people, rather less talk and more action would be a better approach: skip the Start Up Group and get straight to work.

At the weekend, whilst travelling, I stopped for my midday meal at the Fountain Inn at Parkend in the Forest of Dean. The meal was very enjoyable and tasty, but didn’t quite live up to its billing on the menu. I went had the steak and ale pie, ‘A rich, old-fashioned pie, topped with puff-pastry.’ Well, rich, yes, though a little runny — it would have benefited from the gravy within being a little thicker. It’s also true to say that it was topped with puff-pastry, but that’s the problem, it was only topped, no sides nor base. For me, ‘old-fashioned’ when applied to pie construction implies that the pastry encases the filling, not just tops it off in modern mass-catering style. It was very tasty, freshly prepared stuff, but more like chunky steak-and-carrot soup with a puff-pastry lid on than a real pie.

The inn clearly does plenty of business from the local railway and the welcome was friendly and the beer good. It’s well worth a visit, just don’t expect the food to be as authentically traditional as the website menu suggests.

The Adver has reported that plans for building on Swindon’s front garden have been ‘shelved’.

A CONTROVERSIAL plan to build thousands of homes on Swindon’s Front Garden has been shelved due to the tough economic times. The announcement came after Swindon Council admitted its hopes to pick a developer to build 4,500 homes in Wichelstowe from a list of four companies, chosen earlier this year, will not go ahead this summer as they had hoped. However, plans to build some 200 low-cost homes on the 460-acre site will go ahead as planned.

But as the comments from councillors within the Adver’s own report indicate, that is overstating things: the plans have been delayed, not shelved, yet. There’s also something missing from the report: the selection of developers that the council has deferred is for the Middle Wichel and West Wichel developments only. Most of East Wichel is already owned by Taylor Wimpey. Development may have slowed, but with land already sold to a developer, it’s unlikely to stop for long.

As you may or may not have noticed, I have relocated this blog to a new internet address, www.komadori.me.uk, but, by the wonders of Google, links to the old blogspot address will all redirect to the new location.

Perhaps it’s just been poorly presented, but the plan by the inSwindon company to run a remembrance event in Wharf Green at the same time as the main remembrance ceremony at the memorial in Regents Circus seems inappropriate. If it is, as inSwindon claim ‘a very simple event’ then it might be reasonable — an opportunity for busy people to take some time to remember, without the formality of a normal remembrance ceremony. But that’s not the way it appears. An event with bagpipes, poetry readings and a parade is beyond being ‘very simple’.

Remembrance events should be primarily for remembrance, not to promote the latest town centre redevelopment.

Whilst researching my last posting, I noticed that the forthcoming cabinet meeting of Swindon Borough Council has as the final item on its agenda ‘University at North Star, Swindon’ including site plans. It will be discussed behind closed doors.

No, I’m not being serious… but consider the bit of health & safety lunacy allegedly behind the postponement of the opening of the pool at Highworth Recreation Centre.

The temperature of the pool, which is supposed to be 28 degrees celsius had dropped to 22 degrees overnight. According to Mr Baker children under eight are not allowed to swim in water below 27 degrees for health and safety reasons.

On that basis, children should never be allowed to swim in the sea off Britain’s coasts.

I see that the railway village has been kitted out with new black boxes to replace the original orange recycling boxes. I presume it’s been done to reduce their visible impact in this historic area, but a pair of large black boxes are just as obvious as a pair of orange ones. As they seem to have been specially ordered for the area, I wonder if anyone considered making them a pale brown colour to better blend with the stone facades of the houses?