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The plans to replace the former tented market with a ‘pavilion’ of cafes is to be discussed by Swindon Borough Council Planning Committee on Tuesday. I’m not sure what the planning officer was looking at when she was considering the plan, but her report seems to be talking about something significantly more impressive than the artist’s impression — never known for showing developments in a poor light — of the new development.

The ‘pavilion’ offers a light and contemporary design solution to this tired part of the town centre and it will hopefully act as a catalyst for the regeneration of the surrounding streets and premises….

The full height glazing to the units is welcome and the brise soleil provides a contemporary architectural detail. The curved glazed facing Commercial Road provides an interesting gateway to Wharf Green both during the day and the evening….

The ‘pavilion’ has been designed using contemporary architecture which is light and simple. It is a building that can be viewed in the round as a centre point from a variety of vista’s. It responds well to the area and will be a positive catalyst to the future of the town centre regeneration.

I’d thought it was the role of planning officers to provide the committee with objective advice, not subjective opinions. Well, in my opinion, the proposed structure is no more ‘contemporary’ than the existing one. The existing building is a landmark. The proposed building is just another retail block no different from many to be found elsewhere.

I went along to the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust’s new information centre in Regent Circus today, where, amongst other things, they are promoting their hopes and the council’s plans for a canal through Swindon town centre. Whilst, not surprisingly, some of the volunteers there were very knowledgeable about the canal proposals, what was rather alarming was how poorly informed they were about the Council’s plans that would support their aspirations — the Central Area Action Plan. Alarming, because it is the developer contributions from the central area development which Swindon Borough Council says will pay for the canal, and because the plan says quite a lot about the canal and some of it contradicts what those from the Canal Trust are saying. But then, some of what they were saying is well into the realms of fantastic optimism over realism — trams and mass pedestrianisation in Swindon? I don’t think so! (Further pedestrianisation has already discounted in an earlier draft of the plan).

I’ve also adjusted the level of concern I would feel if I lived in Erin Court or Shire Court from ‘a little worried’ to quite worried. The new draft of the Central Area Action Plan incorporates a Gateway at Kingshill.

The Gateway at Kingshill
The buildings in the Shire and Erin Court area are visually poor. This area is, however, effectively a gateway into Central Swindon and as such is identified as redevelopment opportunity area on the Proposals Map.
The redevelopment of this area would remove the potential need for an awkward ‘S bend’ and would allow for the canal to be designed along a straighter alignment. The final alignment of the canal route through this area would be detailed at the design stage of the Shire and Erin Court redevelopment.

That sounds to me like compulsory purchase and demolition on its way. No other properties seem to be so clearly identified in the plan for long-term planning blight as these are.

I also see that the ghosts last sighted outside the Falcon pub have now appeared in the action plan outside the old GWR hospital, with one of them wearing a Brunelesque top hat. So much for this being ‘forward planning’….

My first reaction, when I saw the news story about Thames Water’s invention for identifying leakage from its customers’ pipes, was that this was typical of them: putting resource into proving that the minority (25%) of leakage was not their responsibility, rather than fixing the bigger problem of their own leakage. This may well be the case, but the press-release that this story came from made me wonder why this is necessary at all. The figures in Thames Water’s press release are somewhat ambiguous, in that it is not clear whether the ‘average water loss per property’ quoted is just the 25% from customers’ pipes, or the includes that from Thames Water’s pipes too. However, whether the leakage from customers’ pipes is equivalent 95 or 24 extra toilet flushes per house per day (or 19 or 5 extra baths per house per day), that seems, to me, to be a lot of water… especially as not all properties have leaks. It’s not a small dribble that ‘can often go unnoticed as the escaping water may drain away naturally’. As the new invention only works on water meters and can’t be used on unmetered properties, I would have thought that those that would benefit most from the application of this invention would have already noticed that their water bills were rather high.

Not only are there customers apparently content to pay large water bills for their leaks, but Thames Water will also pay for their repairs for them. It clearly pays to spend money like water.

I doubt that the streets of Swindon will be getting off to a clean, fresh start in the New Year. The pile of rubbish outside 41 Westcott Place continues to grow. It has now been there for almost two months. As already found in Broadgreen, there’s not much evidence of the instant action promised by Ms Darker against ‘fly-tipping’.

I don’t usually post just to link to other blogs, but this photograph from Rotund Pictures of the Railway Village and former railway works is as dramatic a view of the area as you’ll ever see. (It’s been produced with some photo-manipulation, but is impressive nonetheless.) It makes a change from the significantly less impressive view down at street level.

I see from the December edition of Central Outlook that Ms Darker is having a few problems with the English language.

Fly-tipping In Central
Residents have complained to me that some irresponsible people are dumping their black bags. Our officers have been through the black bags and have ascertained names and addresses of those guilty of dumping and they will be prosecuted. The wheelie bin rollout has been hugely successful and I hope residents will contact me with details of any dumping so that we can tackle this immediately. I fully support the Council policy to introduce wheelie bins. We face the threat of a fine from Government if we don’t meet our target to recycle and and reduce landfill. This fine could be as much as 6 – 7% on Council Tax so we are determined to reach our target.

Someone should contact the Oxford English Dictionary, to advise them to add ‘chaotic and incompetent’ to the definition of ‘successful’.

Courtesy of whoever was ‘kind’ enough to buy a tube of green toilet rolls for me in the office Secret Santa, I have now discovered that green is the new black. Renova sell their ‘Black’ paper products (kitchen rolls, toilet rolls, napkins and handkerchieves) in a range of colours: black (naturally), red, orange and — the latest addition to their range — green. Can’t help feeling that the marketing people have got a little over-excited, though. For example, of their paper handkerchieves they say

Be invaded by these vibrant… pulpy and glossy green handkerchiefs….

A handkerchief invasion? Scary! They describe their toilet rolls as

Luxury tissue paper in emerald green to celebrate exotism [sic] in the bathroom. Enjoy!

They even suggest that using Black toilet paper will

Promote your business name and fame!

Really? Business success has never been so easy….

A warm mystery in every single olfactive [sic] moment.
Soft and glamorous… A paper of pleasure.

From now on, I will flush with pride!

The post office has announced which post offices it intends to close in the Wiltshire and West Berkshire. The list includes three within Swindon: Westcott Place (Central), Cheney Manor Road (Rodbourne) and Guildford Avenue (Lawn). Just beyond the borough boundary, the post office in Toomers Garden Centre on Stone Lane, Lydiard Millicent, is also scheduled for closure.

The nearest branches for those affected will now be those in Commercial Road, Rodbourne Road in Even Swindon (the suggested alternative for Cheney Manor Road and Westcott Place, although parcels that could be left for collection at Westcott Place always seen to be deposited at the Old Town branch), Cavendish Square (the suggested alternative for Guildford Avenue … I can’t see that going down well with the residents of Lawn), Queens Drive and the main town centre branch in Sanford Street. Those displaced from Lydiard Millicent are recommended to use the Shaw Village Centre branch.

The main interest of the branch access reports for the urban offices seems to be whether their is a bus service between the closed and replacement offices… which is fine for those that live right by the soon-to-be-closed branches, and a fairly pointless observation for all others. For Westcott Place, the report states that ‘There is a bus stop located outside the branch.’ That’s true. What is not true is the statement ‘There is a frequent bus service between the two branches.’ There is no such thing: the bus stop outside Westcott Place Post Office is virtually disused. The reports were clearly written with zero local knowledge.

It is nice to see that Mrs Snelgrove has already stated her opposition to the closures, but given that is a result of a policy of her own party in government, which she always backs, regardless of local consequences it is difficult to believe this is more than empty rhetoric from her.

The consultation on the closure plans is open until 31 January 2008, though it appears to be of the We’re consulting because we have to but won’t take any notice of the comments type. Comments should be sent to:

Tim Nickolls
Network Development Manager
C/o National Consultation Team
FREEPOST CONSULTATION TEAM
Email: consultation@postoffice.co.uk.

I’m in favour of houses being designed to be as energy efficient as possible, but I do have some concerns about the designs that feature in Kevin McCloud’s initial thoughts for his Hab Housing company’s front garden development. Both in the gallery on his company’s website and in the photographs shown at his recent event in Swindon, wood-clad buildings feature heavily.

Mr McCloud has made a comparison between Swindon and Harlow. As I’ve noted before, I have lived in a couple places where architects have experimented, of which Harlow was one. Both those places featured many, many wood-clad buildings. Those in the St Ann’s area of Nottingham were built in the early 1970s… and demolished at the turn of the millennium. The many wood-clad buildings in Harlow have lasted somewhat longer, having been build in the 1950s and 1960s, but the majority have had the wood replaced with uPVC. The few that remain in wood look decidedly tatty.

Wood may look nice when newly painted or varnished, as in the photographs that Mr McCloud uses, but it’s a high maintenance building material and that look doesn’t last. Swindon has enough problems with flawed housing designs, such as the sytem-built pre-cast reinforced concrete houses of Parks, Pinehurst and Penhill. Lets hope that an obsession with making things ‘natural’ doesn’t add to that.

(And just in case anyone is tempted to get overly sentimental about a TV personality leading a housing development, McCloud’s Hab Housing is partnered by Footstep Homes, a joint venture company backed by some fairly unabashed capitalists.)

The Adver has reported the outcome of the council’s Pride of Place poll, launched in October. The attraction of which people are most proud is Coate Water. What is perhaps more revealing is just how few votes some of the other ‘attractions’ got. The results in full:

• 31% Coate Water
• 25% Lydiard Park
• 13% Town Gardens
• 10% Barbury Castle
•  6% Magic Roundabout
•  5% STEAM
•  4% Swindon Designer Outlet
•  3% Link Centre
•  2% Oasis Centre
•  1% Wyvern Theatre

Given the question (Which attraction are you most proud of? ‘If you had just one day… where you’d take a visitor’ rather than ‘Which attraction is your favourite?’) it’s probably not surprising that the two leisure centres didn’t do too well: whatever their merits, the two centres are definitely showing their age and have been surpassed by similar facilities in other towns. Similarly for the Wyvern, which was still shut when voting started. However for STEAM museum to come below a roundabout, a hilltop and what is, though an attractive park, nevertheless just an urban park, says little for the museum.

Did the poll succeed in the objective of making me feel connected with my council? Not really, especially as the most popular attraction was one that the council was intent on surrounding with concrete.