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Honda moves 7,000 cars to airfield

8:30am Saturday 25th October 2008 in News

HONDA is planning to dump nearly 7,000 cars in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

The car giant is planning to use the runways on the former Wroughton Airfield as a temporary storage site for vehicles because of a general slow down in sales.

But residents and local councillors are worried about car transporters thundering through Wroughton village, as well as the effect on the landscape.

The site is owned by the Science Museum, where the Tabernacle Stones are currently housed.

Honda has said that up to 30 transporters would go to and from the site every day, but would be limited to travelling between 9.30am and 3.30pm.

But resident Teresa Scranney said that even with Honda’s self-imposed limits there was still cause for concerns.

She said: “That time frame takes in the end of all three schools in the area. The junior school finishes at 2.45pm, the infant school at 3pm and Ridgeway finishes at 3.15pm.

“The route Honda intends using through the village is along Swindon Road, Moormead Road, Devizes Road, High Street and Church Hill – all mainly well-populated residential streets.

“The A4361 through the village can be busy at rush hours, but there's nothing like the volume Honda now proposes throughout the day, nor are there many vehicles the size of these transporters.”

Teresa is also concerned about the visual impact, although Honda has said it does not consider the airfield as a particularly attractive landscape and is partially industrial.

She said: “In the village we don’t consider the airfield to be industrial - we view it as a part of local history.”

Honda has promised to lessen the impact on the landscape by covering the cars in a non-reflective white wrap, which will also protect the vehicles from damage.

Ward councillor Brian Ford said: “While I am in favour of Honda storing their vehicles there I am concerned about transport issues.

“In terms of the visual impact –in an ideal world this wouldn’t be happening, but in the current economic climate I think it is the right thing to do.”

Matt Moore, project manager for the Science Museum, said: “Honda are a major employer in Swindon and we are happy to do what we can to support them at this difficult economic time.

“In terms of transport I know that Honda and Swindon Council are in talks to minimise the effect of that.”

Any objections need to be made to the council by Thursday, November 6.

Comments(44)

PeeveD says...
8:53am Sat 25 Oct 08

HONDA is planning to dump nearly 7,000 cars in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Since when has this area been regarded as naturally beautiful?

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RFM says...
8:55am Sat 25 Oct 08

Yet more sensationalist tabloid journalism from the Advertiser.

Honda are planning to DUMP 700 cars......

DUMP? Hardly.

It is journalism like this that makes the Advertiser seem no better than the Daily Star et al.

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Majorie Poops says...
9:25am Sat 25 Oct 08

OK, let's not allow traffic through Wroughton for fear of upsetting the snobs there. Why not just sack loads of Honda staff and then use the empty employee car park for the excess unsold cars. Make sense?

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malkym1 says...
9:26am Sat 25 Oct 08

QUICK!! Get the Eco warriors assembled -Saunders, Farmer Swindonvoice, Flicky, Sue Birley etc where are you to defend this latest outrage in your area (well some of you's area!)Come on you need to round up the FOE Troops -blockade the roads - think of the pollution the noise!! -still at least they're not flying them in!! What's required is that lunatic Greenham Common mentality - you know - lie down in the middle of the road - chain yourselves to the transporters - go on be GREEN & MEAN!!

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malkym1 says...
9:40am Sat 25 Oct 08

Marg P - well they could use the Park & ride for some of them - I mean it's never overflowing is it? Are you cfa in disguise - seems there are a few ex-pats in Geordie land

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Bobfm says...
9:45am Sat 25 Oct 08

The harsh reality, carrying on producing and storing or lay off workers. From the companies perspective the latter would be the preferred option but clearly they do not want to do that. So I suggest that protesters keep quite or you could find a very disgruntled ex Honda worker or two on your door step, 'complaining'.

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sid1 says...
9:46am Sat 25 Oct 08

Well done to the Adver??, DUMP does that mean they are going to scrap these cars, or would more normal people use the word STORE?????

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Esk_Hause says...
10:17am Sat 25 Oct 08

I'd be more than happy for Honda to "Dump" one of their cars outside my house if they're looking for somewhere to get rid of them!!

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Big Mac says...
11:33am Sat 25 Oct 08

I can barely believe I'm reading this.

At this particularl moment in time, Honda is the very last organisation the town's only newspaper should be having a dig at.

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RFM says...
11:40am Sat 25 Oct 08

Has anyone else noticed yet another example of poor writing skills in the Advertiser?

What is a rat invastion? Is it the same as a rat invasion?


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cfa says...
11:48am Sat 25 Oct 08

malkym,

I'm not Marjp.

Do they have room for any Nissans down there? The Washington plant is cutting production and laying of some of it's contract workers.

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Worz says...
12:32pm Sat 25 Oct 08

>Bobfm, South Marston says...
>The harsh reality, carrying on producing and storing or lay off workers.

Third option, as done by JCB recently: Put their staff on short time (34 hours IIRC) and produce less. Possibly the best of a bad bunch of options. It's hardly surprising, given the gross over supply of cars in this country.

As long as Honda's car transporters are limited to times between the school runs, then there should be little impact to traffic and the residents.

Presumably Honda are paying rent to the Science Museum, and maybe the SM can use this extra money for the benefit of their displays?

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TheBlackHand says...
1:20pm Sat 25 Oct 08

This reminds me of when as a kid we would go into the local chippy and ask "have you got any chips left" the reply would always be yes to which we would reply serves you right for making too many, same applies to Honda, why dont the company slow the lines down, gve the employees a reasonable amount of time to build their cars. Wasn't a few months ago that staff didn't have time to go to the canteen for breaks? give them a longer break.
PS if you want to give me one of your surplus cars i'll take it off your hands.

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localgirl80 says...
1:48pm Sat 25 Oct 08

A friend of mine works on the production line - He is now only doing day shifts, and only working tuesday to friday.

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Futures says...
1:59pm Sat 25 Oct 08

What shoddy journalism. It's thanks to Honda, BMW, Intel and Nationwide that this town is still standing, and now this "paper" is slamming them!?

What a joke. Hows about sacking some of these journalists? I'm sure a few of these excess cars could be stored in the adver car park?

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RFM says...
2:09pm Sat 25 Oct 08

I wonder how many Honda employees live in Wroughton?

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Swindon born n bred says...
2:20pm Sat 25 Oct 08

so, 30 transporters per day between 9 and 3 (approx). That's 30 in 6 hours or 5 an hour or one every 11 minutes.

Hardly counts as traffic congestion does it!

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NoAngel says...
2:27pm Sat 25 Oct 08

It may not seem like a liot of transporter but have you seen how those maniaces drive.....

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FlowerPower says...
2:45pm Sat 25 Oct 08

The Oxford English Dictionary definitions of Dump vs Store

dump

• noun 1 a site for depositing rubbish or waste. 2 a heap of rubbish left at a dump. 3 informal an unpleasant or dreary place. 4 Military a temporary store of weaponry or provisions. 5 Computing an act of dumping stored data.

• verb 1 deposit or dispose of (rubbish or something unwanted). 2 put down (something) firmly and carelessly. 3 informal abandon (someone). 4 Computing copy (stored data) to a different location. 5 send (goods) to a foreign market for sale at a low price.

store

• noun 1 a quantity or supply kept for use as needed. 2 (stores) supplies of equipment and food kept for use by members of an army, navy, or other institution. 3 a place where things are kept for future use or sale. 4 chiefly N. Amer. a shop. 5 Brit. a large shop selling different types of goods. 6 Brit. a computer memory.

• verb 1 keep or accumulate for future use. 2 retain or enter (information) in the memory of a computer. 3 (be stored with) have a useful supply of.

So IF Honda were a military organisation then 'Dump' could be used correctly, but as its not ... the word is STORE!!

Shall we take a collection, to buy a dictionary for the Adver news room?

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FlowerPower says...
2:49pm Sat 25 Oct 08

Another point, the transporters would be going at the rate of 30 a day. But that is a short term problem I imnagine? After all if each carries say 10 cars, thats 300 cars transported a day and to get all 7000 cars moved would take about a month (Forgive me if I am wrong, maths is not my strong point!!)

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I Too says...
2:54pm Sat 25 Oct 08

Malkym wrote :- "QUICK!! Get the Eco warriors assembled -Saunders, Farmer Swindonvoice, Flicky, Sue Birley etc where are you to defend this latest outrage in your area (well some of you's area!)"

Wroughton airfield, whilst having an environmental value, and an unusual "star formation2 runway pattern, is probably not a SSSI.
If your only input is to have a stab at people, that have not even posted on this site, simply because you,ve chosen to dislike them, you need to get a life

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I Too says...
2:58pm Sat 25 Oct 08

A bigger concern would probably be, that this is a site of The National Science Museum. Other shows are also staged at this site, such as classic car shows, which require large parking areas for the exhibitors and visitors.
We would hope that rules are in place to ensure that this is only a temporary storage solution.

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mush1234 says...
3:03pm Sat 25 Oct 08

As regards the first comment i dont know if the area is classed as natural beauty but from barbury castle looking over wroughton and swindon the view is amazing,so yes it would be a blot on the landscape.so no we dont want them there.Secondly honda`s present site
is on a huge area of land you may think that what you can see from the A419 is big but beyond the building is a vast area of land doing nothing,i have worked there and know they do usually store lots of cars on part of the old runway but beyond that their land goes right up to southmarston village ive walked the dog inside the perimeter fence(not supposed to)and there is enough room to store thousands of cars there and its out of site of everbody and would save on transport costs,so come on honda whats going on sort it out.

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I Too says...
3:24pm Sat 25 Oct 08

Hello Mush. Haven't heard much from you for a while?
It does sound a little mysterious.
It would save a lot of time, money and effort if they use ALL the available land at the South Marston site first.
I also worked in honda, for a short while. I expect somebody has made the suggestion, about space still being available, but the middle management wouldn't listen. That would have been typical during my time there.
Another issue, overlooked, is that car theft wasn't uncommon from the factory site, so Wroughton airfield will also need to up it's security.
Either way, I would feel happier knowing that this is only a temporary solution

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malkym1 says...
4:07pm Sat 25 Oct 08

I TOO - Well you see thing is I enjoy angling and I quite like to go fishing on these forums. Sure enough all you have to do is bait up a nice juicy offering on a hook and reel 'em in - like you!

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I Too says...
4:15pm Sat 25 Oct 08

Sad.

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PeeveD says...
6:39pm Sat 25 Oct 08

malkym1 wrote:
I TOO - Well you see thing is I enjoy angling and I quite like to go fishing on these forums. Sure enough all you have to do is bait up a nice juicy offering on a hook and reel 'em in - like you!
Not Sad.... Sheer Brilliance!!
Keep 'em coming Malk!

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mothership says...
7:05pm Sat 25 Oct 08

visual impact!rows of new shiney new cars,or rusty old hangers...

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who dat? says...
7:13pm Sat 25 Oct 08

"Shall we take a collection, to buy a dictionary for the Adver news room? "
Now that would be a waste - I doubt the teen scribblers would know how to use it!!

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malkym1 says...
7:32pm Sat 25 Oct 08

I Too wrote:
Sad.
Awww are you -never mind I'm sure you'll soon be feeling better.

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TheBlackHand says...
9:26pm Sat 25 Oct 08

Why have a go at the adver for printing the facts! i guess you are all HUM employees, who probably don't live near the plant and have to put up with the traffic and smell that comes from your factory, and before you say it i was here before you!
Be warned people of Wroughton be prepared for traffic,noise and pollution it's coming your way and the adver told you.PS i do not work or have any association with the paper apart from reading it

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I Too says...
9:36pm Sat 25 Oct 08

When are Malkym1 and Councillor PeeveD getting married ?

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Terence says...
10:08pm Sat 25 Oct 08

Sunday 12:45 at the registry office, it's a civil ceremony. I wouldn't imagine there'll be many toasts at the reception. :) (It'll all end in tears)

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malkym1 says...
12:42am Sun 26 Oct 08

You and Terence could come along dahling- we'll have a double wedding. I Too- As Dick Emery used to say-oooh you are awful but I like you tonky tonk! please do keep sending me your little billet-douxs mwah!

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Mum's The Word says...
9:28am Sun 26 Oct 08

localgirl80 wrote:
A friend of mine works on the production line - He is now only doing day shifts, and only working tuesday to friday.
That's concerning :(

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Worz says...
10:27am Sun 26 Oct 08

>"Shall we take a collection, to buy a dictionary for the Adver news room? "

They've already got one. The Journos didn't understand the story, but they liked the way that the author explained everything as he went along.

(Sorry chaps, couldn't resist :-)

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Bobfm says...
11:36am Sun 26 Oct 08

Mum, this rather fits in with what I was told by an insider about 6 months ago. Polish staff were being brought in to train and then to go back to their own plant. The suggestion being given the expanding market will be that part of the Euro zone then it would make sense to produce over there.

We is why it is vitally important not to upset Honda by complaining every time they do something as minor as this.

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PeeveD says...
11:41am Sun 26 Oct 08

I Too wrote:
When are Malkym1 and Councillor PeeveD getting married ?
Oh please grow up!

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BWB says...
11:41am Sun 26 Oct 08


Dont think I will buy a 2009 Honda
It could have been In a field for
a year or more.When I buy new,I
expect new.The bubble has burst.

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Worz says...
5:00pm Sun 26 Oct 08

BWB wrote:

Dont think I will buy a 2009 Honda
It could have been In a field for
a year or more.When I buy new,I
expect new.The bubble has burst.
It could be worse. If you buy a new, imported car, then it could have been standing outside at Portbury Dock for a year or two, in the salt spray.

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BWB says...
7:16pm Sun 26 Oct 08


It could be worse. If you buy a new, imported car, then it could have been standing outside at Portbury Dock for a year or two, in the salt spray.

Worz. You are absolutaly correct.
Thats why cars are so much cheaper
at any seaside resort.

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RFM says...
9:05am Mon 27 Oct 08

I see there is no option to leave comments on today's rehash of this story! Maybe the 'journalist' doesn't want it to be highlighted that this is pretty much another non-story.

For one month a few more lorries will be moving through what was once a picturesque village!

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Worz says...
10:52am Mon 27 Oct 08

BWB wrote:

It could be worse. If you buy a new, imported car, then it could have been standing outside at Portbury Dock for a year or two, in the salt spray.

Worz. You are absolutaly correct.
Thats why cars are so much cheaper
at any seaside resort.
http://maps.google.c
o.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&
geocode=&q=bs1&sll=5
3.800651,-4.064941&s
spn=12.426641,22.631
836&ie=UTF8&ll=51.48
6254,-2.70062&spn=0.
002408,0.004828&t=h&
z=18

OK, not quite the seaside, but the Bristol Channel, the Avon and the Severn are tidal here, and hence salty.

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Jiver says...
7:00pm Mon 27 Oct 08

malkym1, Highworth on the Hill says...
4:07pm Sat 25 Oct 08
I TOO - Well you see thing is I enjoy angling and I quite like to go fishing on these forums. Sure enough all you have to do is bait up a nice juicy offering on a hook and reel 'em in - like you!

I Too, Swindon says...
Sad.

PeeveD, Swindon says...
Not Sad.... Sheer Brilliance!!
Keep 'em coming Malk

malkym1, Highworth on the Hill says...
Awww are you -never mind I'm sure you'll soon be feeling better.

I Too, Swindon says...
When are Malkym1 and Councillor PeeveD getting married ?

Terence, Swindon says...
Sunday 12:45 at the registry office, it's a civil ceremony. I wouldn't imagine there'll be many toasts at the reception. :) (It'll all end in tears)

PeeveD, Swindon says...
grow up!

Ha Ha Ha Ha
The "couple" obviously don't like the taste of thier own Duff medicine



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