komadori’s green corner

Anyone using the cycle routes in Swindon will be accustomed to the sort of obstacle in the photograph. They’re usually at the junction between a cycle route and a road, presumably to stop children riding straight onto the road without looking. A child on a bicycle could, just, negotiate their way around the zig-zag of barriers. For an adult the only way is to push their bicycle through or, where there is open space (as there is for most examples in north Swindon), ride round the outside, thereby making the whole thing totally pointless. The example here is one I came across today on Whitehill Way in Freshbrook, at the highly dangerous junction of… one cycle path with another cycle path. Apart from the possibility that whoever was responsible for this would like to start a new type of steeplechasing event using bicycles, just what is the point?

Having done a fairly rapid U-turn last year when their new residents’ parking policy of one permit per house ran into strong public opposition, Swindon Borough Council is having another go. This year’s policy appears to be blatant buck-passing.

A Residents’ Parking Advisory Group made up of elected members will also represent the wishes of locals. It is said to be one of the first of its kind in the country.

Strange… I was sure I already had some elected representatives. They’re called councillors.

It’s nice to see that the BBC can still be quick off the mark and first with the news. Over a month after it was reported in the Adver and commented on here, the Beeb has finally caught up on the work being done by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust to improve access to the River Ray and modify the local environment for the benefit of riverside wildlife. The work started yesterday, but the news release from a month ago is unchanged. Some of Jo Sayers’ comments from that news release which the Beeb quotes now have a certain irony to them now that they didn’t have a month ago when quoted by the Adver.

At the moment, in some places the river is so overgrown that people can’t even see it.

Recently, some would say we’ve been seeing rather too much of the river.

I have been reading the draft Community Strategy for Swindon which is currently open for consultation. It is produced by the Swindon Strategic Partnership (a government decreed body that oversees the strategy-document-heavy, consultation-rich, activities of the Swindon Local Area Agreement Partnership). It is called ‘A Shared Vision for Swindon 2008–2030’ but reads more like a socialist vision for Swindon.

These community leaders focus on the future and work in partnership to make decisions which deliver real benefits to the whole community. They don’t work in isolation, though: local people are passionate about the quality of their neighbourhoods and are involved in their development and improvement. Most importantly, those local people are happy to invest their time and energy to keep their neighbourhoods safe, clean and attractive….
This goal is achieved by public-sector organisations, voluntary groups and local people all working closely to promote healthy living and create caring, cohesive neighbourhoods….
By 2030, local communities are working with public organisations – like the police, the borough council and a wide range of voluntary groups, at neighbourhood level – to reduce crime, keep people safe and develop a sense of community and belonging.

Apparently, the private sector has no role in Swindon in 2030, except for providing jobs and paying taxes.

Seventy nine days after I sent them my comments, thirty five days after the closing date for the consultation, the Forward Planning Group at Swindon Borough Council have sent me an acknowledgement slip.

Consultation on the Swindon Central Area Action Plan

Thank you for your representation on the Swindon Central Area Action Plan ‘Preferred Options’ Paper.

We will write to you in due course to advise you on how your representation is being considered.

Why would I want to know how my comments are being considered? Presumably various people will read the comments submitted, possibly summarise the comments of many for wider consideration, others will think about what has been written then draw some conclusions and make a decision or two. I know what the overall process is because it was described in the consultation documents. What I would like to know is what the outcome of the consultation is. How they get there, provided it is consistent with the process the council has already described, is very much of secondary importance.

I’d also be interested to know why, when I submitted my comments by email, the Forward Planning Group insist on responding by snail mail.

Having seen that the 12 Bar has recently submitted a planning application for a wooden smoking shelter (like some other pubs already have to overcome the smoking ban), I wondered how long it would be before one of these caught fire (not necessarily from cigarette ends) and these shelters then get banned too.

Whilst I may have concerns about the developments on the Front Garden (not least the possible need for occupants to travel by boat rather than car), for the Swindon Front Garden Action Group to claim that there was

between 1ft and 1.5ft of water covering many areas where houses are set to be built and where roads into the site have already been created.

is only half true. Some of the main roads on the site were flooded. The areas where the houses will be built were not. Even just a quick look at the plans shows that all the housing, retail and industrial developments are on higher land. As the man from the developers said

All residential development on Wichelstowe will be outside the predicted flood plain and will be built with ground floors at least 600mm above the predicted worst case flood level to give an added degree of certainty that it will not suffer in times of flood.

However, he wouldn’t be a developer if he could resist the urge to indulge in a little spinning.

Similarly all of the distributor roads serving the residential areas are designed to be above the flood level so that the communities are not cut off.

I guess the road I photographed must be serving something other than residential areas… a water park, perhaps?

There seems to have been a slight reversal in which councillor gets the front page treatment for their misdemeanours. This time it is Councillor Heenan making the headlines for driving without insurance and not displaying a tax disk, whilst Councillor Glaholm’s resignation from the chair of Swindon Borough Council’s Scrutiny Committee (following his recent indiscretions) has yet to be reported in any place of significance. I just hope Councillor Heenan is better at town planning than he is at planning (and monitoring) his car insurance renewal.

’Twas the first day of the new recycling regime in this part of Swindon today. As I walked to work this morning, the clear plastic bags for plastic bottles that had been put out for collection were very revealing in two respects. Firstly, the large number of people that put bags out filled with a relatively small number of unsquashed bottles, despite the council’s advice and the cost of the bags. Secondly, being a person who is quite content to drink tap water, the number of water bottles in many of the sacks was a surprise. Some households clearly spend more on bottled water than I spend on food. A masterpiece of marketing over common-sense.

komadori will be busy at a few social engagements for the next few days. As a consequence, blogging will be light to non-existent for the remainder of the week.