komadori’s green corner

Apparently, Swindon Borough Council is being overwhelmed by universities interested in opening a campus in the town.

Council leader Rod Bluh, said he could not reveal the identities of the universities as talks were ongoing but that he remained optimistic a deal could be struck. He said: “We have spoken to one or two universities, but investment is far from certain at this stage.”

Wow! So many! I’m impressed!

“This is a great example of cross party politics working at its best. I have already been working closely with Michael Wills on this and Ann Snelgrove is also concerned about exactly the same issues,” said Coun Bluh. Speaking in Parliament on Friday, South Swindon MP Mrs Snelgrove said she was concerned about the delay.

If this is cross party politics at its best, I hope we never see it at its worst.

Whilst travelling yesterday, I noticed three of First Great Western’s staff at Cheltenham Spa station helping elderly passengers with their luggage. I’ve not seen this level of service elsewhere for a long time, nor at such a relatively small station.

So why not elsewhere? The platforms at Cheltenham Spa station are not readily accessible to the disabled, so the Disability Discrimination Act and recommendations of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee mean that First Great Western has to provide the service, by law. Given the poor image that First Great Western has for the quality of its service, ’tis a pity they don’t seem to realise how good an impression it gives, in comparison with the installation of lifts which is, apparently, the preferred way of complying with the regulations.

If the chief executive of the New Swindon Company is to be believed, Swindon being the home of one of nine BBC Big Screens will have a miraculous effect on the town’s standing.

Hosting the only screen in the South will propel Swindon’s image to a national level. This new development will start to create that lively bustle that has been absent for so long.

Really? I wasn’t aware of the locations of the eight existing screens. (Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Hull, Rotherham and Derby, according to the press release — it seems the New Swindon Company cannot count.) I don’t recall any of those towns having their image propelled anywhere by the presence of am oversized TV. And in what way does people gawping at a big screen create ‘bustle’? Some of the other claims are just as far-fetched.

Wharf Green will also provide Swindon with a focal point for 2012 lead up activities, and events, that are planned once London takes over the mantle of Olympic City

I thought the intention was to use the Olympics to encourage people to participate in sport. It seems the aim in Swindon will be to create a community of full-on couch potatoes.

After two months and three ’phone calls the council have finally collected the two green bags of garden waste I put out for collection. Reasons for non-collection explored during the ’phone calls included the bags not being green enough (tho’ they are clearly sufficiently green for the dustmen doing the non-recyclables collection to leave them behind) and that perhaps they were not visible from the road. (There’s a wall between my front forecourt and the road; council instructions are not to put bags in the road or on the pavement. So what do they want me to do, build a wall-high pedestal to put my green bags on?) Lets hope they’re rather more efficient when the full programme of recycling starts in September.

There is, methinks, a little too much excitement about what talking CCTV cameras (more accurately, CCTV cameras with loudspeakers connected to a control centre, from which warnings and announcements can be given) might achieve in the Railway Village. For starters, it is just a demonstration of the technology tomorrow: the cameras are to be trialled in Penhill, not the Railway Village, and only if successful there will they be tried elsewhere. The council does have a mobile but silent CCTV camera (trialled in Park North) and is buying three more. That will not go far, even in the straight roads of the Railway Village. Even if talking CCTV was installed, it won’t have much effect on the anti-social behaviour many have in mind. CCTV is proven* to be effective for premeditated crime, not* for spur-of-the-moment violence. It may stop some of the drug dealing, but it’ll do little for the behaviour of drunks on the way home after a Friday night of binge drinking.

* Link is to a pdf document.

It seems that, by virtue of submitting comments on Swindon Borough Council’s Central Area Action Plan and Core Strategy, I am now on their Forward Planning Group’s mailing list. Today a letter dropped through my letterbox informing me that they have adopted a supplementary planning document on Backland and Infill Development and are now consulting on another supplementary planning document on Swindon Sustainable Building Design and Construction. Thrilling, no? Not just the letter either, but also copies of the statutory notices for both of the said acts, each printed on a separate piece of A4 paper. Duplex printing is, apparently, an alien concept at the council. As is folding paper to fit it into a smaller envelope, thus ensuring that they (and thus me through my Council tax) have paid for this to be delivered as a Royal Mail large letter, an extra 14p for each of these letters they sent. As I’ve never put pen to paper to the council’s forward planners, only digit to keyboard, the real puzzle is why they did not email all this stuff, a saving of 36p just on postage, of several sheets of paper, and matching my chosen method of communication. Deleting an email is just so much easier than putting all this paper in the recycling box.

Swindon Borough Council: a council for the 20th Century.

Walking along the old railway line from Mannington to Old Town today, I see that preparatory work for the front garden development has now almost reached South Leaze, so the whole length of the site is now being worked on. Most noticeable was the absence of Blackhorse Bridge, demolished early last month. Elsewhere, the main activities seem to be building temporary roads and putting in drainage. We wouldn’t want the occupants of the new houses to get wet feet now, would we?

Blackhorse Bridge in May and… the site of Blackhorse Bridge in July.

With so much serious news around, what was the main topic of conversation in the canteen today? Mr Brown’s new cabinet?  No. The car bombs found in London?  No. It was whether, after weeks of frequent heavy showers, anyone would get a chance to mow their lawn between the downpours this weekend. There’s nothing quite as distracting as tall grass.

In the rush to re-brand itself following Mr Brown’s cabinet reshuffle (one of the aims of which seems to have been to increase the length of acronyms for government departments), the old Department of Trade and Industry has got a little confused over it’s new identity, appearing correctly as the Department of Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform on its homepage, and as the Department of Business, Enterprise and Better Regulation on its About Us page.
(Click the images to enlarge to something readable.)

Elsewhere in the flurry of elongating acronyms, the new Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (the new ruler of Swindon’s Research Councils) is to be commended for the choice of background colour for its website (though not on its ability to distinguish its objectives from those of the old Office of Science and Innovation).

Reading about Swindon Borough Council’s plans to extinguish smoking in enclosed public places by doing 500 inspections on pubs, clubs and the like in the first month of the ban, one thing struck me as wrong, even if one is in favour of the ban. The amount of signage required is just way over the top (with a fine of upto £1000 for getting it wrong).

The main entrance to every workplace in England [has] to display A5 signs including the no-smoking logo and the words “it is against the law to smoke in these premises.” Then further no smoking symbols must be displayed in all company cars and staff entrances.

Unless they’ve been living in another country for the last few months, any staff would know there was a ban being introduced without the need for signs at every entrance. It must be a very profitable time for the sign manufacturers.