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Community united in war on crime
9:55am Friday 4th July 2008
Comments (34)
PEOPLE from across the community have been working together to make Broadgreen a better place to live.
Broadgreen beat manager PC Paul Crouch said by working with community leaders, councillors, schoolteachers, businesspeople and Swindon Town, crime was down in the area.
"When I took over as the neighbourhood beat manager in September 2007, the relationship with the community was quite tense," he said.
"But through cohesion events, tasking meetings and other ideas like football matches we have been able to build bridges.
"There have been difficult times, particularly with the investigation into the hammer attack at Ridgeway School. And then with the petrol bombings, but things are coming together now."
In March, the neighbourhood bobbies put on their shin pads and tackled the area's youngsters on the football pitch.
PC Crouch and his colleagues managed to scrape a 6-5 victory against members of the Asian community during the County Ground match to make officers more welcome in the neighbourhood.
PC Crouch said schemes like the Streets for Living, a three-year project to increase street lighting, improve road layouts, slow traffic and improve parking had also helped improve relations.
Nick Capstick, headteacher of Drove Primary, said that despite the school being outside the neighbourhood, a lot of the pupils and their families live in Broadgreen.
Mr Capstick has been making school facilities available to youngsters in the area to keep them out of trouble.
"In this community we have very proud people," Mr Capstick said.
"I have worked in cities across the country and never seen such proud communities as Broadgreen."
Mr Capstick is trying to get council funding for projects to help disaffected youths.
Community sports coach Doug Imrie organises training and matches so Broadgreen youths can get involved in sport.
"It's about trying to keep kids busy," he said.
"It can be difficult getting the resources, but friendly football matches encourage keeping active and constructive play."
Central ward councillor Derique Montaut said: "There are a wide range of social issues that need to be addressed and at times this area has been a tinder box.
"But it is encouraging that the aim of this group of people is to come together to address the problems."
Your Say YourSwindon Advertiser
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
10:08am Fri 4 Jul 08
I agree partly with you and then again... I like words! They can be so expressive and beautiful. Why stick to the same old vocabulary day in day out? Life is tough, it's real and sometimes horrific. Let's make it better by expressing ourselves with beautiful words!
Frontier(s), says...
10:13am Fri 4 Jul 08
What does 'social issues' actually mean, for example?
Blocked drains?
Captain Sensible, Near Swindon says...
10:23am Fri 4 Jul 08
Frontier(s), says...
10:27am Fri 4 Jul 08
Robert Feal-Martinez, Swindon says...
10:32am Fri 4 Jul 08
Captain Sensible, Near Swindon says...
10:46am Fri 4 Jul 08
roy bezzant, swindon says...
10:58am Fri 4 Jul 08
Frontier(s), says...
11:08am Fri 4 Jul 08
Broad Green is like many areas of Swindon
Er, have you been there?
It's certainly not like many areas of Swindon.
Robert Feal-Martinez, Swindon says...
11:21am Fri 4 Jul 08
Captain Sensible, Near Swindon says...
11:43am Fri 4 Jul 08
Nuddy, Swindon says...
12:26pm Fri 4 Jul 08
Could it be that this area gets quite a lot of coverage by the Adver, as lots of things, good and bad happen here?
As for Councillor Montauts comments,I would say they are typical of him.
Has anybody else had a 'conversation' with him and afterwards wondered what the heck he has actually said that had any substance or meaning? He's a typical politician full of a lot of empty words that mean very little.
Peeved, Swindon says...
12:33pm Fri 4 Jul 08
Rest assured if South Marston was to become as ethnically diverse as the ghetto that is Broadgreen you would have no problems.
Shame that whilst a group of bobbies have a spare afternoon to have a kick about at the County Ground they don't have the time to follow up your thefts. Has the local constabulary just given up on the idea of what a priority should stand for?
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
12:44pm Fri 4 Jul 08
Robin Harris, Swindon says...
12:51pm Fri 4 Jul 08
If you believe that that then you are in dream land. It is a hotch potch of anyone and everyone from around the world.
When many go through the area they see Asians and Eastern Europeans but these people do have a country of origin and should not be classed so simply.
Also some of these cultures have open aggression to each other but we expect them to live in harmony just because they live in a confined area.
Not a lot will change until they learn to tolerate each others culture.
Frontier(s), says...
12:57pm Fri 4 Jul 08
Mumstheword wrote:Empty words ARE lies.
Are empty words worse than lies, better or the same?
Nuddy, Swindon says...
1:55pm Fri 4 Jul 08
Also some of these cultures have open aggression to each other but we expect them to live in harmony just because they live in a confined area.
Not a lot will change until they learn to tolerate each others culture.
There's much truth in this statement, and it's everbody else that suffers because of it.
Broadgreen is an area containing many people of diverse cultures.
If you believe that that then you are in dream land. It is a hotch potch of anyone and everyone from around the world.
Whilst it is true that you will find people from many countries around the Broadgreen Area, by far the biggest ethnic population that resides here, is the Goans and I've found them thoroughly decent folk.
Amazingly there is still a big population of English people living here as well, it's just that if you are travelling down Manchester Road, in particular, the vast majority of people you will see are not of English decent.
BWB, SWINDON says...
2:23pm Fri 4 Jul 08
Im afraid the town has been taken over.
Employers are happy
because it means cheap
labour.
They will work all week for a bag of rice
john c, swindon says...
3:40pm Fri 4 Jul 08
They will work all week for a bag of rice
40 hours at even minimum wage is over £220 that is a VERY big bag of rice.
Frontier(s), says...
3:45pm Fri 4 Jul 08
yeti, swindon says...
3:48pm Fri 4 Jul 08
still better than what their homeland lives are.
and of course it is not done legally.they work for their own kind.
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
4:59pm Fri 4 Jul 08
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
5:22pm Fri 4 Jul 08
Beating around the bush
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
6:14pm Fri 4 Jul 08
Poem By: Bitter Irony
Hidden by the fading trees
and webbed around with shallow brooks
stirred only by a summer breeze
and undisturbed by prying looks
His house stood, windows opened wide
to welcome her with empty words
as she entered at his side
this is what she thought she heard:
A promise she'd be happy there
and that she'd have no cause to cry
no need for worry or for care
no need to break up truth from lie
She'd sit by windows opened wide
to read her books of empty words
She's always have him and her side
and words would mean just what she heard
The seasons passed: those words, it seemed
had every chance of coming true
And if at night she sometimes dreamed
of losing him, he never knew
She sat by windows opened wide
while he whispered empty words
He knew it not, but he had lied
Not in what he'd meant, but in what she'd heard
Now this went on for may years
and truth be told, he soon grew bored
with all her passions and her fears
Her smile cut him like a sword
as she sat by windows opened wide
and called to him some empty word
He could not understand her, though he tried
to know what she meant, and not just what he heard
He left her on a winter day
with promises that he'd return
before the springtime passed away
before the sun began to burn
She read with her window opened wide
and in her ear he said the words,
"I'll always be there at your side"
Not all that he meant, but all that she heard
But winter passed, and spring did too
and of him no sign could she find
Where he had gone to, no one knew
No news could ease her troubled mind
She read with her window opened wide
and yearned for comforting empty words
to say he'd come back to her side
if not in what they meant, then in what she heard
The sun burned down on fading trees
the moon would cool the drying brooks
a petal-scented summer breeze
tore through the pages of her books
as she read by windows opened wide
and wondered over his empty words
How could it be that he had lied
in what he meant, or what she heard?
As summer faded into fall
a storm came through from off the seas
it blew against her eastern wall
with no more strength than summer's breeze
She left her windows opened wide
and mumbled over his empty words
"I'll always be there at your side"
Not what he meant, but what she heard
Soon winter came, but it could tell
her nothing of the man she'd lost
as diamond-sparkling snowflakes fell
against her windows lined with frost
But still she left them opened wide
and wondered over his empty words
"I'll be there," he'd said, but he had lied
not in what he meant, but in what she heard
She watched as winter turned to spring
as Janurary turned to June
and as the birds began to sing
"He can't be long, he'll be home soon,"
she said by her window opened wide
and mumbled over his empty words
"I'll always be there at your side"
Not what he meant, but what she heard
As summer-time to winter turned
and winter turned again to spring
still on the trees the sunlight burned
but still no whispers could it bring
to her through her window opened wide
as she repeated his empty words
so many times their meanings died
She cared not what they meant, and knew not what she heard
The years went by and the fading trees
fell down beside the dying brooks
the petal-scented summer breeze
no longer came to read her books
She closed her window and trapped inside
all memory of his empty words
"Our memories often lie," she sighed
"We forget what they meant, and regret what we've heard."
No happy ending has this tale
For gone are the trees and shallow brooks
no breeze comes, but a winter gale
blows with no care to stir her books
She is not at her window opened wide
and no memory remains of his empty words
He never came back to her side
If ever he meant to, we haven't heard--
Though far be it from us to wonder why
he ever said such empty words
"I'll be there," we all say, and perhaps we all lie
not in words that we've said, but in meanings they've heard.
BWB, SWINDON says...
11:21pm Fri 4 Jul 08
that was lovely,
after a gutful of scoch i will sleep well.God bless you
one and all,Its time
for me to go to SLEEP.
ZZZZZZZZZZZ...Gone.
Frontier(s), says...
10:54am Sat 5 Jul 08
Mumstheword wrote:Really? Give me an example of some empty words that aren't lies then.
empty words aren't always lies
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
11:12am Sat 5 Jul 08
I think metaphors and similes are a good example. Comparisons that are open to interpretation. For example:
If he fell in a bucket of ****, I am sure he would come out smelling of roses!
Well we don't know that do we (unless we go to the effort of filling a huge bucket, which is unlikely as this is just a statement.) This is an interpretation and imo empty words. It depends on your personal interpretation, so therefore is not a lie.
I asked a few friends this one:
Are empty words lies?
Two friends thought that they were lies, one was undecided and one said "empty words are insincerity's but not necessarily lies."
So maybe if empty words are lies or not is down to your own personal interpretation?
Robert Feal-Martinez, Swindon says...
11:37am Sat 5 Jul 08
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
5:54pm Sat 5 Jul 08
Frontier(s), says...
10:58am Sun 6 Jul 08
If he fell in a bucket of ****, I am sure he would come out smelling of roses!
But that's not an example of 'empty words'. It's a humorous form of ironic sarcasm used to convey a point.
Empty words are when people say something they know to have no real meaning, are insincere and which they know are ultimately not going to result in anything.
It's the same principle as false promises - which are also essentially just lies.
Also, to truly be empty words, the person speaking them must know that what they're saying is meaningless, which means they know they're basically lying.
Frontier(s), says...
11:32am Sun 6 Jul 08
So they're saying something they know full well to be untrue.
BWB, SWINDON says...
12:23pm Sun 6 Jul 08
Would that be a LIE?.
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
2:50pm Sun 6 Jul 08
Mumstheword, Walcot says...
2:56pm Sun 6 Jul 08
Police and the Asian community clashed in a football match that was played earlier this year
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Frontier(s), says...
9:58am Fri 4 Jul 08
I'd be interested for Mr Montaut to expand on his comments.
What are the 'social issues' that he mentions? What made the area a 'tinder box'? And exactly what is meant by 'the community'?
All these ambiguous and meaningless buzz words - why do people feel unable to say what they actually mean?