Temporary park to be built on waste land (From Swindon Advertiser)
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Temporary park to be built on waste land
10:20pm Wednesday 20th July 2011 in News By Adam Kula
Coun Garry Perkins at the Broadgreen site
A NEW park will be opened in Swindon within six weeks.
The council has raised £130,000 and will open the temporary park on the site of the former postal sorting office. It will serve shoppers, visitors and Broadgreen residents.
And once the next phase of regeneration in the town centre is ready, the turf and trees will move on.
The scheme was dreamed up by Garry Perkins, the Tory cabinet member for regeneration.
He said: “None of the Tarmac will be dug up. The soil is going on top, and the trees will be dropped into the soil. We don’t want to a concrete monolith of shops. We want some life. It helps it’s in Broadgreen, they don’t have anything green.
“It’s a case of keeping costs reasonable and not making it too permanent. But for a minimum of three years it’ll be here.”
The site has been derelict for around three years, and has stood surrounded by hoardings.
Coun Perkins said the creation of the park might have happened sooner, but he had only held the regeneration portfolio since last year.
The Union Square development, beginning with work on flats close to the soon-to-vanish Whalebridge Roundabout, will progress in phases across the town centre towards the bus station, bringing new shops and offices.
Coun Perkins said the idea was only decided a couple of weeks ago, and did not need to go through council or cabinet approval.
But meanwhile, other development which should have been started by now, remain moribund.
One is the proposal to transform the nearby station forecourt into a pedestrian plaza.
It was supposed to be under way in early spring, but no work has yet begun. Coun Perkins said: “That will be starting shortly. The delay has been due to Network Rail’s contract people, even though we’ve put in 70 per cent of the money. That’s what’s so frustrating.
“I’ve been assured it will be starting by the end of the summer.”
The park will be a mix of grass and paving, and will continue to host the funfair on its paved area.
Comments(23)
kevin leakey
says...
11:32pm Wed 20 Jul 11
Guv
says...
11:57pm Wed 20 Jul 11
Typical Torries. Sick to the back teeth of this joke party. Three years lol. Pathetic.
Robh
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1:25am Thu 21 Jul 11
cshepherd
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8:00am Thu 21 Jul 11
P Rowed
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8:41am Thu 21 Jul 11
Home Boy
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8:53am Thu 21 Jul 11
trustnopolitician
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9:25am Thu 21 Jul 11
"Councillor Perkins, please note this waste of money park is not in Broadgreen, but in Queenstown and will probably serve street drinkers and late night revellers,rather than any shoppers, visitors or residents living close by"
Like most pronoucements by Mr Perkins - not thought through and he doesn't know much about Swindon geography.
If there is any credit in this suggestion it goes to the person who had the original thought - clearly not Perkins.
Whether we can afford £130K is another matter.
Town Centres are dying out with more than adequate retail parks at Greenbridge, West Swindon,Orbital in North Swindon.
If this is the first move to create a new style Town Centre it should be applauded but regretably it ain't
I 2 Could B
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9:34am Thu 21 Jul 11
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As for this initiative, SURELY it has to be better than a boarded up, tarmac wasteland? I would much rather my money was spent on something like this than utterly pointless street lights that apparently only serves to prevent taxi drivers mowing down rabbits.
kevin leakey
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10:44am Thu 21 Jul 11
Queenstown is the area bounded by Fleming Way, the railway line and Corporation Street, hence the old Queenstown School being named after it and the name of the carpark on the same site.
Broadgreen is the area bounded by Fleming Way, Corporation Street, the railway line and County Road previously called the Broad Street Area, personally I never stretch the boundaries of the area I live as I know where they are!
As the old Post Office, Davis House and Bus Garage sites come under the Community Council’s constitutional area, a few years ago we made a request to SBC to remove all of the hoardings from those areas and simply grass them over, to make the areas more pleasant to look at for everyone, which once done should have been relatively cheap to maintain.
Despite what Councillor Perkins has said previously, as far as I am aware nobody living in the Broadgreen area, as defined above, were ever consulted on what they thought might be a good way to green these areas over.
Councillor Perkins said -
“We want some life. It helps it’s in Broadgreen, they don’t have anything green”. The fact is this park is not in Broadgreen and if you want to go down the road of the Broadgreen Area not having anything green, the County Ground is closer than the post office site and has been there around a decade longer than the houses.
Therefore I do resent the Broadgreen name being used in some sort of charitable, look what we’re doing for you, pat on the head manner.
http://Www.Swindon.Org.UK
says...
11:05am Thu 21 Jul 11
The run off of the site could cause problems if the normal drains become blocked/altered.
I think it woul make more sense turning it into additional long term all day parking which is in demand because of all the office blocks.
That way the land would actually make an income instead of being another outlay for SBC.
How many others would prefer extra all day parking places?
I 2 Could B
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11:12am Thu 21 Jul 11
kevin leakey
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11:18am Thu 21 Jul 11
I 2 Could B wrote:No doubt they will stray into the area ,I 2 Could B, but not me!!!.
@kevin leakey - oh well, 'Queenstown' is getting a new park, I'm sure the residents of 'Broadgreen' (who live slap bang next to it) will sometimes stray from their territory into it.
Let's hope for everyones sake, it is maintained properly or it ain't gonna look too good for anyone.
Bobby Wright
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12:31pm Thu 21 Jul 11
This is a total waste of money justified by lying about who wanted the park. The lazy labour councillors for the area claimed to have consulted local residents….
Not true…
they would have prefered something more long term.
PJC
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1:22pm Thu 21 Jul 11
louisa74
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2:16pm Thu 21 Jul 11
I,m being funny but why the hell are they build this only to pull it down in 3 years time it,s been like a building site for 3 years what different,s does it make if it stays like this for another 3years then they would have that money for some thing good where i live there is no park even though there is money there for a park we have never got a park and the money has just vanished
I 2 Could B
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3:23pm Thu 21 Jul 11
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I'll be selling 'Save the Rabbits, turn on the lights' T-shirts as of next week.
Captain Sensible
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4:01pm Thu 21 Jul 11
Blackwell 2
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5:00pm Thu 21 Jul 11
I 2 Could B wrote:Don't forget the "where's our WiFi" T-shirts
The only real surprise here is that nobody's mentioned that we could have had 3.5 of these parks with the WiFi money. Even though they don't want the park either.
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I'll be selling 'Save the Rabbits, turn on the lights' T-shirts as of next week.
cushman
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6:33pm Thu 21 Jul 11
beaulieu
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9:31pm Thu 21 Jul 11
Whereas Councillors appropriation of £130,000 + apparently requires no approval , business plan, project management or prior public notification or approval.
mmmmmmmmmmmmm seems something's not quite right here !
house on the hill
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9:52pm Thu 21 Jul 11
Blackwell 2
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10:50pm Thu 21 Jul 11
komadori says...
11:30pm Wed 20 Jul 11
http://www.talkswind
on.org/index.php?top
ic=3120.msg17226#msg
17226
The suggestion was repeated in a meeting with local residents held by the New Swindon Company in December 2008. Nothing happened. Three years of inactivity should not be something for Mr Perkins to be proud of.