Tag: squeeze

You might think that those responsible for one of the country’s foremost libraries would take some pride in their use of the English language. Alas not. Why use just one word when three could be given some exercise? Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, in their news report and other pages, choose to describe their proposed warehouse in South Marston as a ‘book storage facility’.

As you read this, either at your living facility, or at an employment facility, using electronic communication facilities, just be glad that the record of the nation’s written language is in such safe digital manipulation facilities hands.

I’m not sure whether the developers of Swindon’s Front Garden will be happy about being identified by the International Herald Tribune as

A glaring example of the real estate market gone bad.

Perhaps they’ll take solace from the thought that if the Tribune’s London correspondent believes that Swindon is “about an hour’s train ride south of London” perhaps her understanding of the housing market is as poor as her geography.

At least the international attention will be more welcome to them than the misplaced attempts by the Front Garden Action Group to thwart the sales of houses in the Front Garden. Some of their suggests look like grasping at straws.

There is no supermarket, no schools, no library, a very limited bus service. I think Sovereign are jumping the gun.

Well, the development is closer to those amenities than some existing parts of Swindon. It’s just a five minute walk (I’ve tested that) to the nearest bus service, and another ten to schools, supermarkets and — for the moment — a library in Old Town. Based FRAG’s analysis, parts of Cheney Manor, Moredon and Okus should be declared unfit for human occupation.

Some of the group’s other actions are just pointless obstruction.

Next month we will be writing to solicitors, estate agents, developers and so on to warn them that if they don’t let people know something about the history of flooding and noise at the site they may be opening themselves up to legal challenges in the future.

The law prescribes what information has to go in Home Information Packs. Information on environmental risks such as flooding is optional, not compulsory. But leaving these inaccuracies in what the campaigners are saying aside, just what do they hope to achieve? Do they think that if they can deter people from buying houses in the Front Garden, the developers will then demolish all the houses, dig up all the roads and put the land back to how it used to be? Just look at the area where Westlecott Farm used to be and you’ll see that it is too late to go back.

The damage to Swindon’s Front Garden has already been done — obstructing the marketing process now is just a worthless exhibition of sour grapes.

In a contest, it’s important for the participants to know and follow the rules. Those that don’t know the rules tend to lose or worse, get disqualified. This basic requirement applies not just to sports, but to any contest: school exams, elections, mortgage applications, the list is endless. Somewhere in that list are planning enquiries.

As I’ve noted before, the Save Coate campaigners have admitted to being amateurs when it comes to planning enquiries. In their surprise at how the Coate Enquiry has been run, that amateurishness is apparent.

All of those signatures that took time and effort to get together were just counted as one complaint.

If they’ve read the guidance for participating in planning appeals, they should’ve known before they started that would be the case. It doesn’t take much effort to find a couple of examples on the Planning Inspectorate’s website that show how petitions have been treated in previous enquiries. Why do they think it is that many of the big environmental activist groups don’t bother with petitions but run mass letter writing campaigns instead? It takes less than a second and zero thought to sign a petition. They may be good for publicity; unless backed-up by submissions from others making a similar point, they’re almost worthless for winning a case.

I think Swindon Council really passed up a number of opportunities to challenge the developers, so it was left to us to do it.

Or perhaps Swindon Borough Council’s counsel was sticking to the rules, rather than raising issues that the law does not allow the inspector to consider.

I just hope that the planning inspector appreciates the views of the people of Swindon and will take those on board.

That’s very unlikely, as he’s not heard the views of the majority of the people of Swindon. All he’s heard are the views of the council, the campaigners and the developers.

I don’t wish there to be development in the area near to Coate Water, but neither do I wish to have a group of unelected environmentalists claiming to represent the views of Swindon.

Whilst reading about a councillor from Haydon Wick Parish Council bewailing the poor road access to the proposed Oakhurst School, it was difficult to come to any conclusion other than that he is totally out-of-touch.

The proposal is aspirational and assumes that everyone will be walking their darling children to school. That is just not realistic in this day and age. We would like better traffic management and allow for the fact that people take their kids to school by car.

The comments in the article from parents all suggested they would walk their children to school. Most of the comments posted said the same.

It was also difficult not to notice, at the top of the list of Student Adver articles one headlined ‘Look After The Environment’. Mr Pike should spend more time listening to the children — and, if he’s any sense, his parishioners.

I’m no fan of the proposals to develop the area to the east of Coate Water, but I still despair at the approach of the campaigners opposing the proposals at the current planning enquiry.

The campaigners admit to being amateurs.

We’re amateurs, it really is an unfair contest. It’s like playing rounders with your hands tied round your back.

It shows. They forget that they are not the only ones opposing the plans at the enquiry. Swindon Borough Council is opposing the plans too and, whilst they may not have as deep pockets as the developers, they’re certainly not in the amateur category.

If you’re participating in a quasi-judicial process like a planning enquiry, it’s worth sticking to the rules, not ignoring them. Not doing so tends to annoy those in control, and risks the valid arguments getting lost in an ocean of irrelevant dross. If one disagrees with the statutory bodies that have an obligation to express an opinion on applications such as this, careful argument is required to explain why.

David Richards, officiating, said: “My understanding is that the problems of the flood risk is that the Environment Agency has withdrawn its objections.”

Mrs Saunders responded: “So have a lot of people — it doesn’t mean they’re right.”

Hmm… not much evidence of careful argument there, nor evidence of a belief in democracy either. Arrogant dismissal: one; effective campaigning: nil.

With support like this, if Swindon Borough Council win this enquiry, I suspect it will be despite the campaigners, rather than because of them.

Mr Rushforth of the University of the West of England believes that the Oakfield site in Swindon does not feel like a university.

I am not sure that people thinking of sending their sons or daughters to university would think it was appropriate. It does not have the feel of a university campus.

I’m not sure what Mr Rushforth thinks a university campus should feel like: his own Frenchay campus in Bristol is not exactly stunning. Oakfield is mainly flat open fields, much like the site near Coate Water that he would prefer to locate a UWE Swindon branch on. Frenchay is also quite flat, but looks like a factory estate and office park. Neither feel like a university campus to me, but Oakfield does have the benefit that with some good architecture and landscaping — plus a smattering of students, of course — it could be made to look and feel like one. For the Frenchay campus it is already too late.

The fields around Coate don’t feel to me like a housing estate. I doubt that would convince Mr Rushforth’s developer partners. Logically, the planning inspector should find Mr Rushforth’s argument equally unconvincing.

The news that Sovereign Housing is to invest £ 48M in social housing in East Wichel and Priory Vale is really nothing to boast about. Step forward Mr Renard.

We welcome any investment in Swindon, especially during these difficult financial times. It just goes to show companies are still willing to invest here.

Sovereign Housing Group is a charitable company and gets most of its money for house buying from government grants. If the site of Woolies in Regent Street was occupied by a charity shop, would the council claim that as evidence of a booming town centre?

Mr Tomlinson seem rather poorly informed about his own council’s plans for the town centre. The University of the West of England has long-term plans for a campus of up to 10,000 students in Swindon. Those plans are very long term according to the university’s Mr Rushforth, quoted in the Adver.

Ideally we would like to see some headway on [a town centre site] within the next year. Obviously within such a short time period that would be in the form of something like a drop-in centre. It would take around three to four years before we could open the site, and we would be looking at around 1,000 students to begin with, rising to five or six thousand. Given our ambitions we would hope over a 20-year or so period to get something like 10,000 students.

Assuming some of those students are local, it would be an equally long time before there would need to be overspill from a North Star campus, which Swindon Borough Council’s Central Area Action Plan estimates could provide a campus for 7,000. At the alternative site near Coate there’s even more space. Even if the estimate for North Star is rather generous, which it seems to be, so are most universities’ estimates of their own growth potential. The University of the West of England’s ambitions correspond to it growing by 33% from its current 30,000 students — not much evidence of modest predictions there.

So why is Mr Tomlinson worrying about the effect a university might have on housing?

I am concerned about affordable accommodation being hoovered up by landlords wanting to attract students. One of the things that makes Swindon attractive… is the cost of housing and I am worried about the effect a university would have on that, and whether we would see businesses leaving Swindon. If they could build a campus for 10,000 students I would have less concern.

That looks like a bad case of compassionate ignorance to me. Being concerned for the socially disadvantaged may be a virtue; ignorance of the plans of an administration that he was, until the end of last week, a member, is not.

A lot can happen in ten years. Economies can rise and fall, companies can appear and pass from existence. Today’s much publicised deal between just about every property bureaucracy in the region (the South West Regional Development Agency, English Partnerships, Swindon Borough Council and the New Swindon Company) and Muse Developments for the Union Square development is definitely very good news in the current economic climate. But with a ten year timescale, a lot could change — including the plans themselves — and the white hoardings that adorn much of the north-east side of the town centre will be with us for a long time yet. And it’s a pity that in the announcements the developers had to be so predictable.

It is an economically important town and as such should have a vibrant legible town centre with walkable streets, providing new opportunities for business and local people.

Vibrant, the developers’ favourite bit of meaningless jargon.

Under-used. That is the description Mr Perkins has given to Merton Fields.

The area had been leased to the parish council, which had resulted in it being underused…. The borough is showing leadership in putting to use this under-used resource to provide more sports and leisure facilities.

Mr Perkins, the councillor that brought us legalised graffiti in the town centre, seems to struggle with the concept of parkland and open-space as much as he does with the concept of art. For open-space — something the council’s own plans acknowledge is very limited in Swindon — to have the benefits that it is perceived to bring to communities, it has to be not very intensely used. Open-space that is too well used ceases to be open-space and becomes a crowded space!