Well, there ends one of the most lacklustre local election campaigns that I can remember. The blue and red nests have seemingly put all their canvassing efforts put into Parks ward, with the voters in the rest of the town almost been taken for granted.
With it being a couple of years since I last voted at a polling station there were a couple of things that struck me as I cast my vote this morning: the first polling station official didn’t ask me to confirm my name and address when I handed over my poll card; another didn’t bother to stamp the ballot paper with an official mark, just tore it from a pad and handed it over (perhaps they were pre-marked); yet another official sat reading a newspaper and didn’t even bother to look up to see what it was that I was putting into the ballot box. It’s little checks such as these that stop this week’s shaggydog story being nothing more than a tale of naïve stupidity.
In their first — and possibly last — offering of this year’s election campaign, the leaflet stuffed hurriedly through my letterbox this evening is, like their manifesto, long on what the blue nest have done, but short — very short — on what they intend to do in the future. It tells of things done and things being done, but nothing of things yet to be done… from which I can only conclude that they are intending more of the same. (Guess they’re not called Conservative for nothing.) They also seem to be struggling to distinguish their positives from their negatives.
Since the Conservatives took control of the Council in June 2004, we have ended Labour’s unacceptable Council Tax hikes,… We believe in positive campaigning and are the only party that will set out a positive agenda.
Their three-year-old agenda may be positive, but in a deteriorating economic climate some of it, particularly town-centre redevelopment, is looking less than realistic.
With just three days to go to the local elections, it’s a bit late to be running stories about the use of social networking sites to encourage voting.
Facebook used to galvanise voters Social networking website Facebook is being used by a Wiltshire council to encourage people to vote.
Swindon Borough Council said the aim was to help make it easier for citizens to find information about the election and to exchange ideas with others.
Swindon Borough Council actually ‘said’ very little: the BBC has just copied the words from the council’s website. And if they’d bothered to check, they would have seen that they have hardly galvanised anyone: the Facebook group has just eleven members, three of whom are administrators.
There is a story here: it is one of poorly promoted experiments and inefficient use of council staff time.
In his latest election leaflet, Mr Ali seems to be having difficulty remembering what has been the work of his red nest colleagues.
The Tories have introduced a waste and re-cycling scheme that has failed to address the needs of Central’s multiple-occupancy homes. After over a year of campaigning for recognition of this problem your local labour councillors have an agreement that a specialist waste warden will visit the multiple-occupancy homes.
Whilst not disputing the failings of the waste collection scheme, I could have sworn their had been others more active on this issue.
Swindon needs a road system to match the Labour Governments town regeneration project.
Strange… as I recall, one of the main features of the town centre regeneration planning has been the unwillingness of the government to contribute to improving transport infrastructure.
The Tories solution is to narrow key roads and increase traffic volumes on Central’s residential streets.
Err… that’s the canal that is part of the regeneration plan is it? Who did you claim that project for? Being a bit selective in what you claim as your own perhaps? Lets not forget either that the impact of the canal on traffic is much more complex than Mr Ali and his colleagues would have us believe. Yes it would increase traffic at the Broadgreen end of Central ward, but traffic at the Kingshill end would be decreased. He also seems confused over schooling.
They have also failed to… provide sufficient local primary education, forcing parents and children to undertake unnecessary costly journeys.
I am proud of Labour’s huge investment in new schools.
Contradictions like this hardly give an impression of a reliable, trustworthy person.
It’s nice that Mr Ali alone among this year’s election candidates has made any attempt at communication in the run-up to the election. It’s unfortunate that so much of that communication is untrue.
Feeling young, or just middle-aged? Then read the Adver to make yourself feel like you’re just days away from drawing a pension.
Project aims to get people cycling
A PROJECT aimed at teaching the elderly to cycle has been hailed a success…. So far eight people, ranging in age from 40 to 85, have taken up the challenge at the athletics track at the County Ground.
Eighty five I accept can reasonably be described as ‘elderly’, but forty too? Perhaps the staff at the Adver are very young… or, in their own terms, rather old.
There weren’t many buildings in the part of Swindon’s front garden that is to be developed: just four. West Leaze cottages were demolished last December, Westlecott Farm was demolished this February. Now South Leaze Farm Cottages look like they are heading the same way. That will just leave South Leaze Farm. It seems wasteful that in their plans, the for 4,500 new houses, the developers cannot find a space for just four old ones. Is there not something to gain by having a little charm and character in an otherwise uniform modern development? West Leaze cottages have made way for nothing more than a road junction, which could easily have been moved 20′ south to allow them to remain. It would seem that the Wichelstowe planners are thoroughly unimaginative.
After a long absence — and very little presence even then — the red nest’s Action Team (sic) have made a reappearance, though their ‘action’ amounts to no more than dropping a leaflet through my letterbox. They have a strange concept of ‘working hard’. They have, apparently, been
working together to keep the Westcott Place Post Office open.
They’ve clearly not been working very well, as their colleague Ms Snelgrove has consistentlyvoted in favour of post offices being closed. One of their other claims is rather odd too.
Stop the diversion of town traffic onto Central’s residential roads.
Being a rather narrow ward reaching into the town centre, do they really expect the main roads in Central not to carry town centre traffic? There are very few side streets offer any diversion into the town centre either, so this just reads like scaremongering. Perhaps they’re thinking of the impact of the proposed canal, which would lead to greater traffic in Broadgreen, but less at the Westcott end of the ward. Is it too much to expect that a ward candidate might one day campaign as if there is more to Central than Broadgreen?
As for their other claims of action, they’re indisinguishable from claims made by the other parties.
Drivers delivering to the Wichelstowe development works may be somewhat confused when approaching from junction 16 of the M4. The last stage of their journey is along a road clearly marked as ‘Unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles’. Perhaps the houses with which Swindon’s Front Garden is to be filled will just be rather lightly constructed….
Now both the main parties are at it. Just a few days after the red nest brought in yet another minister to meet and greet in the town, now the blue nest have brought in a shadow minister, again to meet and greet, in Parks ward where most of the ministerial visitors have spent most of their visits.
Perhaps I’m old fashioned but, when deciding which candidate to vote for in the council elections, I couldn’t care less what ministers and their shadows have to say. This is a local election, not a national one, and, for once, there are quite a few local issues to be debated, such as waste and recycling services, town centre regeneration, and the canal proposals.
It seems that the parties are so busy showing their parliamentary colleagues around Parks ward that so far they’ve had little time to enter the local debate on the doorstep in the rest of the borough. If parties concentrate campaigning effort on ‘key’ marginal wards and take the elctorate elsewhere for granted, they shouldn’t be surprised if the result is voter apathy.
You’d think that if a developer wanting to replace a landmark property, such as Swindon’s tented market, had their previous proposalrejected because it had too many restaurants in then, on their next attempt, they’d try something with less. You’d also think that if that same previous proposal was rejected because it
fails to achieve a high standard of urban design, is unsympathetic to the local context by reason of its appearance and would fail to improve the character of the Town Centre.
then, on their next attempt, they’d come back with a better, more impressive design.
It seems that the people at Clarebrook Limited don’t think that way. Their latest proposal has exactly the same balance of units as their last (three restaurants or cafes plus only one shop), and a design that is certainly striking, but in all the wrong ways. The previous design was bland. The new design is ugly. Very ugly. Anyone passing in Commercial Road would see a building that looks as though their architects got confused and stuck halves of two different buildings together. That they still call this a ‘pavilion’ shows an understanding of the English language that is as poor as their design. Messrs Pennington Robson describe themselves as ‘interior architects and designers’, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that the exterior of their design is so abysmal.
And remember, when was the last time you saw an artist’s impression of a development that lived up to the artwork in real life? If it looks bad in the plans, it’ll look much, much worse in reality.
