Tag: Swindon

When I started investigating the story in the Adver about a failed bid for Highworth to get some regeneration funds from the South West Regional Development Agency, I soon found myself going round in circles. A quick look at the Highworth Community Partnership Group’s website revealed that it’s not really a partnership at all. The steering group seem to be self-appointed. There doesn’t even seem to be a representative from Highworth Town Council, though it is closely linked (the council takes care of the partnership’s finances).

Highworth Community Partnership Group is supported by Wiltshire Market Towns Partnership, which seems to be indistinguishable from the Wiltshire Forum of Community Area Partnerships. The latter is funded by the European Union Social Fund, the South West Regional Development Agency, Wiltshire County Council and what was the Market and Coastal Towns Association of which it is also a member. The Market and Coastal Towns Association is now the South West Market and Coastal Towns Network, which was created by the Market and Coastal Towns Initiative which is — if you believe the spin and have not yet got totally lost in the tangle of bureaucracy —

‘a community-led initiative which helps local people to prepare and implement a plan for the future of their town and surrounding area’.

Allowing the community to lead themselves apparently requires the financial support of not only the South West Regional Development Agency, but also the Government Office for the South West, the South West Regional Assembly, the Countryside Agency (now Natural England), English Heritage, the Housing Corporation (replaced by the Homes and Communities Agency), the South West Network of Rural Community Councils (itself funded by the South West Regional Development Agency and the Government Office for the South West) and Lottery Funds South West.

So, at the end of all that, a group funded by the South West Regional Development Agency via numerous intermediaries has been unsuccessful in obtaining funds from… the South West Regional Development Agency… and have strangled themselves with red tape in the process.

Swindon Borough Council must design their plant pots very precisely. It’s a pity that those delivering a Christmas tree to the magic roundabout didn’t weren’t so careful.

What’s an extra 10 ft of Christmas tree between friends? Enough to convert a good idea into a farce. No doubt the critics of this bit of decoration are sharpening their prose already….

The entrance to Il Capricorno on the High Street of Swindon’s Old Town does not look impressive. It is a narrow and inconspicuous. However, inside the restaurant widens out behind the frontage and seats around eighty people. The food served is equally unpretentious. A starter of Pate Campagnola was well presented and the taste delicious, though the lightly-toasted bread was a little late in arriving. The berry covering was perfectly done too, strong enough to balance the liver in the pate without overpowering it. The main course arrived promptly and in appearance was unpretentious to the point of plainness. The flavour fully made up for that. There was a generous quantity of well matured bacon in the Penne Amatriciana and, with a sprinkling of Parmesan and pepper, it was the most flavoursome pasta dish I have tasted for a long time.

With a soft drink to accompany the meal and a cappuccino to finish, the total bill came to £16 excluding tip, though a different choice and a few extras from the menu could easily double that.

According to their website, Il Capricorno offers ‘The finest authentic Italian food in Wiltshire’. It’s certainly the finest in Swindon.

I’ve no idea how Mr Wills thinks pollsters earn their living, but apparently it’s not from running surveys. In what is becoming an annual argument over free travel for pensioners, he seems to think that Swindon Borough Council can obtain a survey for nothing.

In these difficult economic times I am not asking the council to spend more money but only to conduct a survey to see whether passengers can get what they are asking for without any extra burden on the taxpayer.

Surveys cost money… unless you want something that’s so poor as to not be worth the effort. It also doesn’t take much thought to work out that, if some pensioners are currently paying to travel before 9.30 am — which the comments in the Adver report show they are — then giving them free travel will cost the taxpayer money.

Whether or not the extra cost’s as much as the £230,000 claimed by Mr Bluh is another matter. That figure corresponds to roughly 2700 extra pensioners travelling in the extra half hour each week.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Swindon Borough Council now has an obligation to find alternative uses for the Mechanics Institute. That’s certainly the impression that the Adver’s report gives.

A Planning Inspectorate report on the Swindon Central Area Action Plan says it has seen no evidence that other sources of cash have been explored to restore the building as a centre for learning, cultural and social activities. It says the council must demonstrate alternative ownership and a cultural learning centre is not feasible before it can look at other uses of the building.

It’s not true: the council doesn’t have to demonstrate anything. The planning inspector’s report on Swindon Borough Council’s Central Area Action Plan is very careful not to point at who has that obligation. These are some of her comments.

The Mechanics Institute is privately-owned. Although there is strong support to bring the building back into public ownership, the ongoing revenue costs of maintaining the building would impose a substantial financial burden on the Council. Consequently, the acquisition of the building by the local authority was discarded as an option in favour of working with the owner to deliver a sensitive re-use of the building that would secure its long term survival….

Whilst public ownership of the Mechanics Institute does not appear to be a viable option, there is no evidence that other sources of funding to help restore the building and reinstate its historic use as a centre for learning, cultural and social activities have been considered, or other ownership options have been explored…. The policy is not framed with such options in mind. Moreover, as drafted, it fails to encapsulate the important place of the building in the heart of the local community, both physically and emotionally

The changes she has made to the plan and its policies as a result also make no reference to the council.

IC12

Before alternative uses are considered, the availability of grant assistance and the option of charitable or community ownership should be explored in order to establish whether it is feasible to reinstate the historic use of this listed building as a centre for learning, cultural and social activities.

IC13

If it is demonstrated that reinstating the historic use of the Mechanics Institute as a centre for learning, cultural and social activities is not feasible, then other options for the future use of this listed building will be considered. Such uses should be sympathetic to, and compatible with, the historic character and role of the building, deliver public access to, and use of, the building’s main rooms as far as possible, and be of a nature that would not adversely impact on the amenity of Railway Village residents

That reads to me like it’s for the owner, Mr Singh, to demonstrate that his proposals are the only viable option… and for those who oppose his plans to demonstrate that they aren’t. Swindon Borough Council is the pawn in the middle, running the planning process. While the arguments rumble on, the Mechanics Institute continues to decay.

Is so nice to know that, when a group of local people — taxi drivers in this case — suggest brightening up Swindon by putting a Christmas tree in the centre of the Magic Roundabout, Swindon’s clown-councillor, Mr Montaut is ready with the baa-humbug spirit of Christmas.

I have been saying for years that something more needs to be done with the Magic Roundabout – it is a landmark for Swindon but people are disappointed when they see it. But this is not the right way to do it – a Christmas tree could be a danger to drivers.

Only if it’s illuminated like a Las Vegas casino, Mr Montaut.

If the Tories do manage to put it up it’ll be the only piece of cheer we’ll get from them this year.

And the red nest has done what for Swindon during the last year? Aah, I remember… nothing. If a tree is such a dangerous idea, what alternatives has Mr Montaut got to offer?

I have suggested some form of tower, or maybe a statue. Considering it is so close to the football club we could have something representing great players from the past – I think Don Rogers kicking a football would be a good symbol for the town.

And they’d be less distracting than a tree?

Let’s hope Mr Montaut never ventures in a car out to the country. With all those trees around to distract him, he’d find it hard to stay on the road.

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!

The Smith’s Quarter development rises by the traverser in the former GWR Swindon Works, with the David Murray John Tower in the background.

Whilst not having any great interest in this myself — and regular readers may find what follows rather dull too — I am aware that quite a few readers land upon one of my earlier posts having done a search for ‘When does M & S open at the Orbital Centre?’ or something similar. Now, I don’t know the answer to that, and it’s almost a year since Marks and Spencer announced plans for a store at the Orbital Shopping Centre. Not a lot seems to have happened since then, and Marks & Spencer’s store finder still rather oddly shows unit C1B of the Orbital Shopping Park as being in Swindon town centre. It also declares — as it has done all year — that the shop will be closed for the next seven weeks. However, M&S have just submitted a planning application to allow them to add their signage to the building, so perhaps M&S at the Orbital Centre might be open early in 2009.