Points to ponder on allotment land homes (From Swindon Advertiser)

Points to ponder on allotment land homes

3:15pm Wednesday 15th February 2012 in Letters

I and about 150 other residents of Gorse Hill/Pinehurst, attended a meeting on February 10 about building on the old allotment land behind Tiverton Road. This was news to many and has been hidden from the truth by this council for a long time.

If you read the article in the Adver last week then you would assume it was a done deal.

The following are some of the finer points that people of the area may wish to take up with the council: l Do the sports people of Southbrook Rec know that in a few months they are about to lose one of their football pitches?.

l Who has given permission to build behind Pinehurst Road on what is the sports field?

l Who has given permission for Section 106 money to be used to build houses for the builder?

l Has the council given this land away or did they actually get money for it?

l Why was a steel plate, that can withstand a pressure of 40 tons, put over the stream in Malvern Road, if not to carry a road into this site and who paid for that?

l What will happen to the two covenants that are on this site?

l If there are more than 700 people on the waiting list for an allotment, why has this site been given up?

This has all the makings of another Croft school site fiasco. Roll on the elections, but don’t ask the CEO of this council for advice as it is nothing to do with him.

T Reynolds Wheeler Avenue, Swindon

Staffing problem

I agree with the Great Western Hospital not to let cleaners and domestic staff to take four weeks off work at one time to go back home to Goa.

If it was one or two weeks this would not be too bad, but I think to have about 25 Goans all wanting to go at the same time is going to leave the hospital very short on staff.

No workplace would allow one person to take holidays for four weeks in one go.

G Belcher Highworth Road, Swindon

We’ve bin ignored

Swindon Council flatly refuses Government aid to revert back to weekly bin collections, the council, which we the people residing in Swindon as council taxpayers, financially support.

Are we not going to be asked, what we think, about this important hygienic issue?

This arrogance beggars belief. Let me remind the council of a few simple facts. We pay your wages and expenses. It is our bins outside our homes we are talking about, why weren’t we asked?

No discussion with the public regarding unpleasant smells from food waste collected once a fortnight and the danger of attracting vermin.

Dr Francis Kennett, of Oxford, was taken to court in 2007 for refusing to pay his council tax because of the vermin issue.

I have read that more than half the councils in England collect fortnightly, reversing the argument, that means that just under half collect weekly.

Government funding won’t cover the extra expense, a council spokesman states. How do just under half the councils fund it then,without the Government funding, which has not started yet?

It was a legal obligation from 1875 until 1997 for councils to collect rubbish weekly. It is time the public servants served the public.

Bill Williams Merlin Way Swindon