komadori’s green corner

The combination of health advice and commercial promotion is never a happy one. The joining of the Dental Health Foundation and the British Cheese Board for National Smile Month is no exception. The intended messages, from the dental professionals side, seem to be that, if you must snack, then cheese is better than something sugary, and that consuming milk based food, such as cheese or yoghurt or milk itself, at the end of a meal will help reduce tooth erosion. But these have got rather lost in translation with the cheese marketing message taking precedence. The reported comment from a local dentist, who has been handing cheese out to child patients, suggests that she has swallowed the whole of the marketeers’ message.

It’s highlighting the fact that cheese is good for you. One piece is not going to reduce their decay, it raises awareness and informs people.

Quite. Oxygen is good for you too: without it, you suffocate; get too much of it and it is poisonous. Similarly water is good for you: too little and you dehydrate; breath vast quantities in and you will probably drown. In the simplistic view being presented, cheese ‘is good for you’ because it helps reduce tooth decay, and fruit juice is bad because it is sugary. It seems they’ve forgotten that there’s more to good health than just healthy teeth. The high levels of saturated fat and salt in cheese have been ignored (as has the contribution of fruit juice to a healthy intake of fruit and veg).

The dentists should stick to dentistry and leave the food marketing to others.

Reading an Adver story headlined ‘Police get hard on knife crime’ my reaction isn’t one of relief nor of wondering why it took so long. I’m more puzzled as to how it got to the point where they need to ‘get hard’ in the first place — though as all they are doing is applying the law it is more a case of getting normal.

The impression I get of the police in Swindon, and no doubt elsewhere, is that they are constantly shifting resources from one government so-called initiative — of which this is the latest — to another. So rather than a steady effort on a range of issues, keeping them all under reasonable control, there is a stop-start approach, with some types of criminality being almost ignored until they reach a point where the politicians pick them as their latest headline-grabbing crime-reduction priority. Concentrated police campaigns have their uses but not when, as often seems to happen, they divert a lot of resource away from what is essential everyday policing.

Reading of the wish of the headteacher of Drove Primary School to open a youth facility in his school’s grounds, I am struck by how this contrasts with the wishes expressed by residents elsewhere in central Swindon to restrict access to Robert le Kyng School, because of concerns over vandalism, drugs and underage smoking and drinking. Although some of the problems are different, perhaps the solution here too should include greater use of the school grounds rather than less.

Over recent years, utilities and banks have been encouraging their customers to ‘go green by abandoning paper bills and account statements in favour of online account management. The aim, so the marketing went, was to save both them and us money and also save a few trees. It seems they were, on two counts, lying.

In the last few weeks I have received new customer magazines from Virgin Media and HSBC. Virgin’s Electric! magazine was such mindless, irrelevant drivel that it went in the recycling bin within five minutes of me receiving it. HSBC’s Liquid is slightly less mindless, but every article is a blatant advert for their products. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not so naïve as to expect a ‘free’ magazine that is not primarily an advert, but I do expect it to be slightly less blatant than the all-out sell, sell, sell produced for HSBC by Wardour Publishing. It too is now in the recycling bin.

So now I am receiving more paper from the utilities and banks than I ever did before and it is trash which, if it were included in the mailings that came with my bills and account statements, I could chose to opt out from.

Not to play bowls though. A meeting had been called for the street where I live to meet with local councillors, Mr Wright and Mr Montaut, and with the Kingshill neighbourhood policing team. The topic for discussion was anti-social behaviour in the street and surrounding area. There is, apparently, a problem with juvenile and late night drinking in nearby open ground and with drug dealing, not that I’ve ever noticed either of these. Lesser problems are late night revellers making a noise as they follow the cycle path from the town centre to West Swindon, children buying milkshakes in glass bottles from a nearby dairy and then smashing the bottles on the paths and in a children’s play-area, repeated vandalism of cars, overspill parking from a local restaurant and from a tyre shop, and cyclists (particularly large groups going to and from Iceland’s depot) cycling too fast and without lights.

My impression of the meeting? That some of my neighbours have very sensitive hearing, and that Mr Wright is, if his actions live up to his words this evening, quite a good councillor. Throughout the meeting it was primarily Mr Wright who was suggesting courses of action that might lead to a reduction in the problems. He also made a point of acknowledging the efforts of Ms Darker, now departed to a bluer ward, in bringing the meeting about.

It seems that Thames Water have, amongst utility companies, a unique touch when it comes to trying to reassure people after flooding. They claim to have done more for those flooded earlier this week than any other water company could, yet also admit that some of the flood-mitigation equipment fitted did not work.

The devices were not 100 per cent successful but they did lessen the amount of water in the homes.

What a great comfort that is. Regardless of whether the flooding is two inches deep or six inches deep, a floor covered by water is just as damaged.

In February, I reported, both here and on the TalkSwindon forum, councillors’ attendance rates for 2007. Today, the Adver has finally caught up. They’re only three months late!

Mr Hudson of Allen & Harris estate agents seems to have a very short memory, less than three days to be precise. On Friday, he seemed to be worried that supply is exceeding demand and house prices are falling.

Allen & Harris manager Steve Hudson said: “This month we saw 20 people agreeing to reduce their house prices in order to create more activity and get moved. Some people are also looking to sell and then rent while waiting to buy later to pick up a bargain.” He has seen a drop of around £7,000 from houses priced at the Swindon average of £149,000.

Today, his worries have reversed and he fears that demand might exceed supply.

Manager Steve Hudson, from Allen & Harris, fears that cutbacks [in new house building] could mean demand is not met. “The last thing we need is a housing shortage.” he said.

If people want house prices to rise, then what they need is a housing shortage. If they want prices to drop, they need over-supply. ’Tis the simple economics of supply and demand. If one considers the large numbers of people who wish to buy but can’t in the free market, and so are dependent on social and ‘affordable’ housing, that suggests there is a real need for house prices to fall, for everyone’s benefit. (Every ‘affordable’ house built — 30% of all major new-build in Swindon — has to be paid for by the profits made on all the other houses built.) So, in that respect, Mr Hudson is correct and a housing shortage is not in the nation’s best interests. However, I suspect his motives are far less altruistic….

The first houses of the Wichelstowe development are now being built, near the site of Westlecott Farm. Even at this early stage, it is easy to see that the houses are being tightly packed, with very little space between the terrace almost completed and the one just started construction behind. With the fake-Victorian design, you could be forgiven for thinking that this might end up looking like one of those areas in the northern industrial cities that were cleared as slums during the 1970s.

A success of Swindon Borough Council that goes relatively uncelebrated is the carrying forward of elements of the corporate games held in Swindon in 2006, so that there has, since then, been an annual sporting event, the Challenge Swindon Festival of Sport. The most visible, and fun, of the sports within the festival has to be the dragon boat racing on Coate Water which took place today. If nothing else, the frantic paddling of some teams, apparently oblivious to the beat from their drummer, provides some amusement for spectators. Hopefully the Festival of Sport will outlive the two-year funding for Challenge Swindon.