Philip Lawrence is proud of living in Penhill.

And he wants other residents of the area to feel the same.

The 65-year-old, who lives in Wilton Walk thinks the whole area has a village feel – and wants to start a community association to get neighbours involved.

He said: “I’ve lived in Penhall for 10 years, I think this is the best council estate in Swindon. It’s the third area I’ve lived in in the town and people said it’s the worst, but I think it’s very special.

“I want to start a community group, and because I think Penhill has a very village-y feel I want to call it the Penhill Village Association. I want it to be for everyone, something that everybody in the area uses at least once.”

He said: “We’ve got shops here, a post office and a pub, The Deer’s Leap. I feel we could make more use of the pubs function room for all sorts of events.”

As well as typical community association events such as games evenings, sales and meetings, he wants to use the area’s natural situation to help youngsters in one of the more densely-populated parts of Swindon to understand nature and the environment.

He said: "We’ve got Seven Fields we can use for sports events and things like that but there’s all this natural meadowland as well which I see out there but it’s just not getting used, and we could use that .”

Another idea would be to try and find a horse or pony for the area’s youngsters to get to know.

Philip who says he has worked with horses for most of his life, and used to be a National Hunt jockey said: “I’d like to try and get one of the unused allotments in the area from the council, and we could offer to take a retired pony - when the children grow up and leave home, or they lose interest, the parents are often lumbered with the pony they got for them.

“That would be a great opportunity for the youngsters around here .”

A community association, Philp feels, would also be useful in combating isolation and loneliness.

Councillor Claire Crilley is one of three borough members for the area.

She said: “There are already a lot of different community groups in Penhill, but I’d welcome anything that gives Penhill people more of a voice.

“The one thing I’d add is that Mr Lawrence’s group, and any community group needs to work with the borough council and parish council - we all need to work together.”