'Enormous' reaction to town plan (From Swindon Advertiser)
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'Enormous' reaction to town plan
10:00am Monday 1st August 2011 in News
A MASTERPLAN for the expansion of Swindon has sparked an unprecedented reaction.
The number of individual responses to the council’s Core Strategy has been counted by the council — and amounts to about 1,400.
The figure is a new record and the council has said it will amend the strategy to take account of residents’ feelings.
But is has also been issued with a stark warning — listen to the people or else.
Among those who responded to the consultation was Steph Exell, membership secretary of the Oakhurst Residents’ Association. The 49-year-old former councillor, of Southwold Close, gasped when told of the full scale of the responses.
She had submitted a 22-page critique of Core Strategy’s plans for 1,700 homes at nearby Tadpole Farm.
“The Core Strategy is still not set in stone,” she said. “It hasn’t been approved by the council or the planning inspector, and I’m hoping Tadpole Farm will disappear. It’s not a sustainable site, and I hope the planning inspector will see that.
“I think what this shows is democracy is alive and kicking. We’re ready to fight. Bring it on. We’ll fight tooth and nail.
“They’re going to have, all over Swindon, so many communities who are angry and feel let down by the Conservative administration.
“They are going to find themselves in a bit of trouble at the ballot box if they are not listening to the community. They should be afraid for their votes.”
The Core Strategy is a blueprint for where Swindon’s new homes and infrastructure will be built between now and 2026.
In the east of the town, residents have been objecting to the Core Strategy’s plans for hundreds of homes around South Marston. Stuart Young, 52, of Manor Meadows, is part of a village working party on the issue.
“We’re particularly concerned about the impact of any development on flooding. We had major floods in the last few years.”
In a statement, the council said: “We are currently analysing the comments that have been made.
“We have received about 1,400 comments on the Core Strategy and we will be making changes to the strategy based on those comments.
“We will then go out for a further consultation on those changes towards the end of the year and the revised Core Strategy will then be submitted for independent examination early next year.”
It then added: “It would be fair to say it is the most responses we have received for a consultation of this scale.”
Comments(12)
Noah's Ark
says...
10:09am Mon 1 Aug 11
Birt
says...
10:30am Mon 1 Aug 11
How about a tram system from North Swindon in to the Town Centre and/or open up a train station at Moredon Bridges with a large park and ride car park to relieve a lot of the current traffic pressures on the overloaded road network?
I 2 Could B
says...
10:53am Mon 1 Aug 11
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I hope that Steph Exell (who, if you read up on her history, is clearly in this to take political potshots at her ex-pals) came up with some positive suggestions in her 'critique', as opposed to 22 pages of whinging about what has been suggested.
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For what it's worth, I think Birt's ideas for both the flyover and tram system are well worth exploring further. I'd maybe suggest extending the tram system into Old Town, thus linking the whole of the Northern development, town centre and the Old Town area.
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Recreation and leisure also needs to be looked into much more closely... Swindon cannot just continue building thousands of cheap houses crammed in together and not provide anything for the residents to actually do.
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I suppose it goes without saying that it might also be worth thinking about how to create some jobs for the new arrivals to do...
Robfm
says...
11:07am Mon 1 Aug 11
Very much like Muse who said they would build if SBC did the roads first.
SBC have debts knocking on £140 million for this year. Where are we/they going to get the money from. This is not about identifying solutions, it's about finding the money to pay for them.
I 2 Could B
says...
11:11am Mon 1 Aug 11
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There's no point sitting around doing nothing in the meantime. Ideas, suggestions and dialogue are necessary, even if direct action doesn't/can't happen immediately. Swindon got caught out with leaving regeneration two years too late (thus running into Labour's recession) compared with neighbouring towns and cities... if that's allowed to happen again, the town will really be in a dire predicament. A plan does need to be in place so that it can be taken up as soon as the economy allows. Better to have it worked through and approved by that stage than to only start work on it once the money's in place.
Robfm
says...
11:25am Mon 1 Aug 11
I agree plans need to be in place, but they should be plans that can work. South Marstons PC's road network solution is simple affordable and would be effective, but the SBC Transport Strategy document is pie in the sky. Going over the railway, or going under the railway etc, aside from the Civil Engineering issues the cost would be huge, and that's just one bit.
A.Baron-Cohen
says...
12:02pm Mon 1 Aug 11
Even in terms of car parking for residents and shoppers, it is totally inadequate in Town and this has proved to be death blow for the shops in the town centre / Old Town.
I would like to be positive about the future of Swindon, but I think Swindon has reached its final destination.
The Regeneration of the town is already a a failure as it is already obsolete compared to what is being designed and built in neighbouring cities like Oxford, Cheltenham, Bristol, Reading.
Even Angrier Monkey
says...
4:07pm Tue 2 Aug 11
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Who's idea was it to build the north Swindon expansion with no upgrade whatsoever to the road links to the town centre?
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Thamesdown Drive merges into 1 lane just past taw hill whilst in the other directon, cricklade road is single lane all the way past penhill to past the moonrakers.
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At a guess I'd say it was the looney government / council policies creating deliberate choke points to "encourage" people to use public transport. Much like not building enough parking spaces in the north Swindon new developments
greenpacer
says...
2:26am Wed 3 Aug 11
greenpacer
says...
2:31am Wed 3 Aug 11
Robfm
says...
7:43am Wed 3 Aug 11
Whatever happened to the Mirror, Signal, Brake system of driving. Now it seems to be to not bother with the mirrors at all, slam on brakes at the last minute and maybe signal.
Robfm says...
10:09am Mon 1 Aug 11
It does seem on the face of it that money, which when on the Parish Council I voted to spend has been wasted, in the sense that it has made absolutely no difference to the numbers of houses previously proposed.
The SBC transport infrastructure report for the village fails to even suggest how any of the options are achievable, and yet in the order of 2000 houses are still proposed, in South Marston and what will be East Marston.