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Update on the use of Northern Development S106 funds. Thanks to some help from Cllr Vera Tomlinson and SBC, here follows some more information on the S106 expenditure saga. There is still more information to come before we can bottom out this murky saga. My understanding of the pertinent points, is as follows:
North Locality Meeting Wednesday February 1st, 2012, 7pm at Blunsdon Village Hall
This was an informative meeting covering a number of issues such as:
Meeting Notes follow: These are unofficial notes that I took at the meeting covering only some of the discussions.
At the North Locality meeting of Feb 1st, (This was previously known as the North Cluster), we were given a progress update on the Mouldon Hill Project, and informed that a new path had been built for the benefit of Oakhurst and Taw Hill residents.
This is the first in a new series of local lunchtime meal recommendations, for 2012. (If you have a local lunchtime favourite, please send details).
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We were heading for the Peatmoor Oriental Buffet, on Saturday, with a hungry grandchild in tow, but it is either being refurbished or has shut down, so we ended up around the corner at the Bombay Lounge. It proved to be a good choice. The main lunchtime fare is an Indian Buffet, which had several tasty choices of curried meat and veg, varying from mild to spicy, two types of nan-bread and salad accompanyment.
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The lunchtime buffet, at £5.99, seems very good value to me.
The Final Agenda has been released for Thursday's Meeting - see below. (7:00pm on Thursday, 12th January 2012 at Oakhurst Community Primary School, Pioneer Road, Oakhurst, SN25 2HY.)
As The Link Magazine says, it is:
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"to give community representatives the chance to get together to share information and talk about the things that are important to the area.
Oakhurst resident and Haydon Wick Parish Councillor Steph Exell said: “The focus for NCSA is to build wider community spirit and support throughout north Swindon, and to ensure individual groups don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel.”
Both Blunsdon and Haydon Wick Parish Councils have subscribed to the new association, as well as numerous residents’ groups from the area."
It feels like a calculated slap in the face to have to watch the recycle lorry drive past all our overflowing recycle bins, on its way from its twice weekly appointment at the local flats. How come they get a twice weekly collection of recyclables and rubbish, yes twice weekly rubbish, when we cannot even get our weekly recycle collection reorganised? I tried to discuss this with Swindon Borough Council today, Wednesday (yes, yet again) but, apparently, the only option open to me was to register a complaint. I will hear the result of this within 10 days apparently.
My complaint ...
From the Oakhurst Residence Association Web Site: The next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on Thursday, 12th January 2012 at Oakhurst Community Primary School, Pioneer Road, Oakhurst, SN25 2HY.
The provisional Agenda is shown below
Just spoken to the council. Recycling is running up to 48 hours behind. The general advice is that if it is not collected by 2:30pm on the day of collection, then ring SBC as they need to make sure that your specific street will be covered. If it is due to be collected Friday, as ours is, then crews don't normally work Saturday, but were this weekend. The advice is that it should be collected today (Monday). As so many streets are affected, advice on individual streets could not be put on the website, says SBC. Some general advice, just saying it is up to 48 hours behind would have been nice though.
OK, that's a bit hard but what is a minority interest of Swindon Borough Council, but has the capability to irritate Council Tax Payers the most? No, not just the summer smelly bin problem.The answer is Waste and Recycling collections.
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Once again, the recycling collection failed this week, in parts of North Swindon. Whilst people seem to find it easy to make an instantaneous post to Facebook, as shown on the Priory Vale, Swindon Group, it seems beyond the capabilites of SBC to post an explanatory notice to the SBC Waste and Recycle website. I feel that most of us accept that things go wrong from time to time, but why do we have to be kept in the dark (like mushrooms, to answer the question in the subject line)? This raises the whole question ...
On Wednesday 21st December, Camels and three wise men will be at the Orbital Centre. See www.the-cross.org.uk for details.
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On 20th and 21st December, North Swindon Baptist Church invites you to
or have a free tea or coffee and use the free gift wrapping service - by the water fountain by ASDA.
From The Link Magazine:
In mid-2008 the developers and the council struck a deal to change the original S106 agreement to give the council elbow room to spend the money in different parts of the town which would benefit residents of North Swindon.
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To achieve this greater flexibility the council and the North Swindon Development Company agreed the reduce the amount originally agreed in the early 1990s of £17.1 million to £14.375 million. However a high proportion of the money has been spent all over the town, with large amounts funding projects with almost no link to North Swindon - for example, building football pitches in Old Town and an all weather surface at Greendown School in West Swindon. See the SwindonLink story on 23 September, for more details.
Just what is going on? The so called transparency initiative seems to have bottomed out.
Oakhurst Residents' Association is asking thorny questions about the £20m+ of developer money and why less than 20% of it was spent on facilities in our area. Get to the North Swindon library on 23rd nov. There are 20million reasons why you should be there.
The Stronger Together and One Swindon agenda are beginning to look like a cynical joke.
 Scouts across Swindon will once again this year be taking part in the annual Scout Christmas Post. The 7th Swindon (Abbey Meads) Scout Group, which covers North Swindon, will be selling stamps at Asda Walmart on the Orbital Retail Park. Stamps cost 20p each and will be on sale: >> |
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From SBC: "the Section 38 Agreement for part of Torun Way, which includes the Bus Gate, has now been signed and the final works in relation to the bus gate are being carried out on site. As you are aware, we were unable to commence the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) process until a signed Agreement was in place.
From the Isambard September E_Newsletter:
2011 Isambard Lantern Parade – magical!
The 2011 Isambard Lantern Parade will start at North Swindon Library at 6pm on Wednesday 19th October and will make its way through the streets and across the road bridge, ending up at Isambard Community School where refreshments will be available.
What do you want out of your Council bin collection service? If you enjoy a friday night roast chicken or whole fish, the remains will quietly mature in your warm bin for 2 weeks until the next collection. It wasn't always thus, but now, to cut down on landfill we have moved to fortnightly bin collections. But why?
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In 1996 EU Council Directive 99/31/EC was introduced to ...
The Local Police have asked Blunsdon Parish Council to email contacts in the Abbey Meads area to advise that intelligence has suggested that plans are in hand for "riots" to take place in Swindon.
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If you notice groups gathering (either on foot or in cars) and acting in a suspicious manner please report immediately on 0845 408 7000 or, if you feel action is imminent, use 999.
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[Photo of Ealing at 03:51, Aug 9th, from The West Londoner, who, IMO is providing the best unbiased coverage]
SBC reminds us that the consultation period ends on August 8th. By SBC:
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Consultation on Wiltshire and Swindon Proposed Submission Draft Waste Site Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD)
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Swindon Borough Council and Wiltshire Council have published the Pre-Submission (Regulation 27) draft of the Wiltshire and Swindon Waste Site Allocations DPD, which builds upon previous rounds of consultation in 2006 and 2010.
SBC has confirmed that the consultation period for the "advertising order" has ended and that comments received are "being reviewed by the Casualty & Congestion Reduction Team".
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In a previous communication, SBC said that if objections were received that required a Cabinet Member's Decision Note, then the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) process could take between 6 to 24 months.
