Building sites may take on new role (From Swindon Advertiser)
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Building sites may take on new role
9:20am Thursday 2nd April 2009 in News
LAND earmarked for Swindon’s town centre regeneration could in the meantime be used for leisure facilities, green space or children’s playgrounds.
This is the aim of £140,000 scheme by Swindon Council to improve the image of the town centre while the slow process of regeneration takes shape.
Areas such as that set aside for the Union Square development, which includes the site of the former police station off Fleming Way and the old bus station, will take years to get off the ground and are more than a decade from completion.
So the council has decided to use the sites more constructively, and will be seeking the advice of Adver readers to decide what to do with the space.
Coun Nick Martin, lead member, for property, leisure and recreation, said: “This is about using funds from developers to make the most of what we have in the town centre.
“The fact is that a lot of this land is going to be sitting there doing nothing for a number of years to come, so why not do something with it. We could have astro-turf rolled out there for five-a-side pitches, which in the future could be lifted up and moved somewhere else.
“That way we are using the area and creating a good image of the town centre for people passing through and for the residents, we are providing facilities and we are doing something for the long term.
“At the moment we are working with the New Swindon Company to negotiate with landowners, in the areas where we don’t own the land, to get an agreement in principle.
“We will then be putting it forward for consultation.
“We want to hear what ideas people have. I’m sure readers of the Advertiser will have a lot of suggestions.
“Maybe people will want a temporary cricket pitch, maybe a children’s play area.
“We could have moveable skate ramps – people very rarely consider what teens want, but if we give them a decent facility perhaps then they wouldn’t be hanging about in toddler’s play parks at night.”
Other ideas included areas specifically designed for town centre workers to eat their lunch, or shoppers to sit for a rest.
Quick growing trees and flowering pots and plants specifically designed for quick growing could be used.
Coun Martin said: “I really hope to get it initiated this year. First we have to look at consultation with the owners, then with the public. We are probably looking at some time in the autumn for that.”
Comments(21)
Big Mac
says...
9:30am Thu 2 Apr 09
Now, let's just remove the now utterly redundant and pointless (and expensive) New Swindon Company from the equation and we may actually see something worthwhile happen.
Bobfm
says...
9:42am Thu 2 Apr 09
Well the plan is almost an admission that regeneration is not going to happen for at least a decade. I'm not prone to saying this, but I told you so last August.
ListenToReason
says...
9:48am Thu 2 Apr 09
Home Boy
says...
9:52am Thu 2 Apr 09
Anyway, sounds like a good idea to me!
Al Smith
says...
9:56am Thu 2 Apr 09
To quote wikipedia:
A regional development agency (RDA) is a non-departmental public body established for the purpose of development, primarily economic, of one of England's Government Office regions.
The RDAs are funded by six different central government departments, those being:
* Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
* Department for Communities and Local Government
* Department for Energy and Climate Change
* Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
* Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
* Department for Culture, Media and Sport
pjohnson0410
says...
10:04am Thu 2 Apr 09
Big Mac wrote:Lets hope the council can push these ideas through without having to have meetings to discuss meeting.So that the appearance of these areas can improve before to long.
Agreed. This does sound like a truly good idea. Now, let's just remove the now utterly redundant and pointless (and expensive) New Swindon Company from the equation and we may actually see something worthwhile happen.
If this was a normal comapny with cash restrictions placed onto them, then you would certainly see redundancies, wonder how many will go from this organisation? the number zero springs to mind.
IRofE
says...
10:16am Thu 2 Apr 09
Bobfm wrote:Thank you for speaking the Truth.
BM, can't remove NSC, they are part of the Regional Development Agency, who are controlled by the EU, SBC has no say in the matter. Well the plan is almost an admission that regeneration is not going to happen for at least a decade. I'm not prone to saying this, but I told you so last August.
As we have seen all over Swindon, Swindon town DEGENERATION continues.
Buildings are left to rot, shops closures increasing and roads in dreadful state!
I might be negative, but in all fairness it is true to say that very little has actually taken place in Swindon to improve Town transportation, leisure, education etc.....
The only projects that have been finalised are the bypasses but these have little to do with Swindon.
Swindon is fast becoming a ghost town and this is no surprise seeing the utter inefficiency of our local apparatchiks.
widds118
says...
10:41am Thu 2 Apr 09
I couldn't put it better myself! The Swindon Degeneration is in full swing! Very depressing.
Bobfm
says...
11:06am Thu 2 Apr 09
Nice to see you using an authoritative source. The SWRAD has an office in the EU Parliament.
ItsPavAgain
says...
11:07am Thu 2 Apr 09
It doesn't have to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds either.
Bobfm
says...
11:28am Thu 2 Apr 09
A Programme Management Committee (PMC) has already been formed to monitor, oversee and advise on the delivery of the Programme.
The role and function of the PMC is laid down in EU legislation and includes approval of the Programme and all policies related to it.
Tonyblairisthedevil
says...
11:46am Thu 2 Apr 09
Swindon_AOK
says...
12:04pm Thu 2 Apr 09
And yet just weeks afterwards, we are now told that (a) Regent Place is dead in the water in its current form (if you want confirmation from the horse's mouth, look at their web site) and (b) Union Square will not be finished for a decade (and not even started for another 18 months at least).
This company (funded by tax payers) has taken so long to progress any real physical regeneration, that they completely missed the boat. Now with the recession, almost 10 years into the so-called regeneration, what have they achieved?
A series of half-baked plans which have resulted in NO physical construction. Ludicrous claims that they have somehow helped with the new library when that was nothing to do with them. A poorly designed big screen TV which has failed to do anything significant to regenerate the area.
Is this really it? I wonder how on earth Peter James as CEO can justify his six-figure salary?
What will the NSC be doing for the next 10 years? Negociating with the Council to turn all their building sites into kiddy play-parks and five-a-side pitches?
This really is a joke!
In the meantime, shops continue to close in the town centre, the Council/NSC OPPOSE the BHS redevelopment scheme in a half-arsed effort to 'protect' Regent Place (causing further 'degeneration').
I think the NSC should publicly apologise for their mistakes and Peter James should resign with immediate effect.
Security word: much-city (if only Swindon was, but its centre is not even fitting for a town let alone a city).
Big Mac
says...
1:13pm Thu 2 Apr 09
What have they delivered for that?
Apart from closing down, bulldozing and putting up white fences around a few sites... nothing whatsoever.
That's very poor value for money, whoever you are.
The New Swindon Company are completely surplus to requirements for at least the next five to ten years - what on earth are we still paying them for?
Anybody can take down some fences and grass/pave over a few bits of land to make some temporary open, park-like spaces.
Let's just get on and do it instead of talking about it for so long that we find ourselves ten years hence and the actualy redevelopment finally starts...
Oik1
says...
5:24pm Thu 2 Apr 09
Here's your starter for ten, a Christmas tree plantation, give it a couple of years and hey presto, the Christmas Magic Roundabout fiasco will be a thing of history a bit like the Mechanics, but thats another bombsite!
Bobfm
says...
5:56pm Thu 2 Apr 09
Captain T
says...
7:21pm Thu 2 Apr 09
PeeGee
says...
7:53am Fri 3 Apr 09
There is no grey with you is there? It's just black and white. But being so short sighted, that's all you can probably see.
Do you really think that this (or any UK) government would put any of this money into the regions if the EU didn't give it back with a proviso? They would just flush it down the toilet at Westminster without a second thought.
Heaven knows what would happen without external checks on such things in the autocractic system your bunch want to bring in.
Robert Feal-Martinez
says...
1:10pm Fri 3 Apr 09
PeeGee are you for real, you said it, 'get money back'. It's our money part of £60 billion we give them every year, £1000/man woman and child in the UK.
The issue is not whether we get it back in this case, it's whether we can sack NSC, Swindon Council cannot.
Our bunch as you describe want local accountability and monies raised locally to be retained and administered for the benefit of Swindon. UKIP's policies are now being copied by all the other parties, so perhaps we have got it right. June 4th will show who speaks the language of the British people, the Lib/Lab/Con/Green cabal who want greater EU control or UKIP who wants Britain to control it's own destiny. The G20 showed once again that Britain is viewed as a cash cow by the EU. We give they take.
D's
says...
12:19pm Wed 8 Apr 09
Have you seen this site giving you a rare glimpse of the inside of the Mechanics.. The adver could ask Mr Singh to do a piece on the inside or even better get him to open the doors for paying visitors to then put the money to good use and start to repair the exterior of the building.
http://www.derelictp
laces.co.uk/main/sho
wthread.php?t=3228
Bobby Bee says...
9:24am Thu 2 Apr 09
Anything is better than the Town centre as it is now.