komadori’s green corner

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’….

I’m not sure what Mr Glaholm is on, but it is clearly strong stuff. His suggestion on how to solve the problems with waste and recycling collections is pure fantasy.

I think what we need now is for Anne Snelgrove to call for a public meeting on this. She’s the one person with the connections that could make it happen and who could be viewed as independent by both sides.

There are many things Ms Snelgrove may be but, as her ignominious voting record in the House of Commons and her many partisan interventions in local politics show, she is neither independent nor seen as such. She’s already had her say on this topic, and it was little more than a party-political jibe.

Mr Glaholm’s other thought on this subject, that the change in waste and recycling collections would have been much more successful if done area by area is also based on an assumption which, for this council, is just plain wrong.

When I was on that working party I suggested that rather than a blanket roll-out we should do it slowly, but I was told the council had the bins in West Swindon and knew what would happen. But it was a mistake. Rolling out everywhere at the same time meant that we learned as we went along – instead of looking at areas where we could learn from best practice.

The evidence so far is that the council has no interest in learning anything from its mistakes and prefers to flatly deny that any mistakes were made.

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’.

“It’s like having a dog.”

With the season of over-consumption now definitely upon us, komadori wishes his small band of regular readers a merry Christmas and prosperous New Year. Normal service will resume once the festivities are over.
(For those that wonder, the odd-one-out in the photo is komadori’s North American relative.)

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!