HAYDON END

Blunsdon at War - this weekend

A walk around the hill

Now that the car park at the Mouldon Hill Country Park is open, you might find this walk of interest. It is a circular walk, starting in the car park. Click below to download the walk and map, in pdf format. (Warning - walk filesize is 7.5MB). As always, your comments would be most welcome.

 

 

A walk around Mouldon Hill Country Park

 

The accompanying map

 

 

Dog Bins

A new dog bin in Haydon End Lane, near White Eagle Road, was vandalised and burned out recently. There had been complaints about the Health Risk associated with the dog waste that was being left where the bin used to be. The bin has now been replaced.

 

The Parish Council has agreed to provide some extra bins in other areas, where people take their dogs walking, but are badly served with bins at present.

Number of councillors to be addressed - update

It seems likely now that the recommendations are likely to be:

• Consideration should be given to the redistribution of existing coucillors to equalise the electorate per councillor ratio
• The numbers of councillors should not exceed 60

See previous article Number of councillors to be addressed fpr more information

Bus Gates

At the Parish Council Meeting of August 17^th, progress on the bus gate issue was discussed. Although the discussion centred around the Torun Way bus gate, I assume that the same principles apply to the Mazurek Way Bus Gate. A local councillor, namely Councillor Heaton-Jones, has been pursuing the matter with Swindon Borough Council, the developers and the police.

 

The intention is for the compliance with the original plans, that were ...

Local Cluster Meeting

Advance Notice. The next public cluster meeting will be in October, date not yet announced.Those who managed to get to the last meeting, popular and somewhat crowded, will know how useful it was.

 

To give you an idea what Cluster Meetings are about, this was from the last announcement:

Mouldon Hill Country Park

At long last the car park at Mouldon Hill Country Park is open and in use, despite its 2 year plus slippage. Mouldon Hill is a wonderful resource for us, with its lake and other facilities. If you want to walk from Haydon End to the Park and take in some of its hidden features, click on the following link for a free download or a printed copy of a suggested walk.

 

Mouldon Hill Country Park

 

From the booklet:

Is parking becoming a problem?

As more and more houses become occupied, is parking becoming an issue in Haydon End? Both the people of Upper Stratton and Redhouse re seeing increasing problems. The Swindon Advertiser staes in an article of August 7^th, titled "Police Crackdown in new bid to keep pavements and roads clear":

 

"MOTORISTS who park dangerously in Upper Stratton will soon receive £30 fines in a police crackdown launched after complaints from residents. Officers this week delivered about 100 warning leaflets to homes in areas where vehicles are regularly left on pavements, too close to junctions, or in other inappropriate locations.

One of the main problems is cars parking on the pavements, thereby forcing pedestrians and people with pushchairs or in mobility scooters onto the roads."

 

Redhouse Resident's Association has written a report "Road Management and Safety in Redhouse." asking

Number of councillors to be addressed

Swindon has 59 Councillors which gives an average number of 2,500 voters per Councillor. However, in the Abbey Meads ward, that works out at 4,471 voters per Councillor, in 2010, rising to 5,174 in 2016. The disparity has risen because of the growth in housing in this ward without an increase in the number of Councillors. I'm sure that our three Councillors would agree that more are needed to spread the load more evenly. But something is being done. Click on [Read More] to read about Electoral Boundary changes.

 

Local Councillors relaunch website

Maybe not news to some of you, but our local councillors re-launched their website, in early July, and are keeping it up to date with some of the latest happenings in and around Haydon End.

 

Click on Abbeymeadsintouch, or the picture, to get the latest news from our councillors, on items such as the new Aldi proposals, the cancellation of bus routes, or the Haydon End Farm planning proposals.

Mouldon Hill - another deadline ...

The car park was supposed to be finished in autumn 2008 (See Mouldon Hill Country Park), but since then deadlines have come and gone, come and gone. It seems now yet another has passed. I'm trying to get an update and will post it here when I do.

 

 

Last week of no 15 bus

[Edit 20 July]Where Thamesdown says that the service will only run from "between Fleming Way and Haydon Wick" they are referring to ASDA, not the centre of Haydon Wick, so this service will continue to run through Haydon End, but to a different timetable. That's great news. See also the 15A timetable as a useful new service.

 

From the Thamesdown Transport website:

Service changes from 25th July 2010

Most of the changes listed below result from the decisions by Swindon Borough Council to withdraw financial support for services 15, 18 & 23 and Wiltshire Council to reduce funding for rural services due to budgetary pressures. Without financial support we are unable to carry on running the routes concerned in the same way as before, because they would no longer be profitable for us.

General Election Candidates

Just to remind you, our candidates are:

UK Conservative MP Candidate, Justin Tomlinson, (Conservative Party)

UK Labour MP Candidate, Victor Agarwal, (Labour Party)

UK Liberal Democrat MP Candidate, Jane Lock, (Liberal Democrats)

UK Green MP Candidate, Bill Hughes, (Green Party)

UK Green UKIP Candidate, Stephen Halden, (UK Independence Party (UKIP))

WiFi, first Phase Completed

The local Government Chronicle reports that "First phase of council's free internet plan completed", and adds:

 

Snow in January and logistical problems meant that the completion of the network serving the 3,500 homes in the Highworth area was delayed - and put back the roll-out across the borough.

The scheme is a join venture between the council and a commercial telecoms company, Digital City, set up with a £450,000 loan from the council.

It has been criticised locally for being in competition with private providers of broadband to Swindon’s residential areas.

 

Digital Switchover

For those already using a digibox or something similar, you might have noticed some problems with the quality of the digital signals this week. This is due to engineering works on the Mendip transmitter, prior to the switchover dates. (See below for problems with the Oxford transmitter)

 

The switchover is due to take place in two stages, on 24 Mar 2010 and 07 Apr 2010 after which, Digital UK have told me, that the signal strength will be greater than it is today.

Care Home Appeal Succeeds

Angel Homes appealed against the refusal of planning permission for residential care accommodation comprising 83 bedroom care home and 14 Extra Care apartments and 35 car parking spaces, sited just off Torun Way by Guernsey Close.

 

The decision was issued on Friday 29th January when the appeal was allowed. Subject to a number of conditions the care home now has planning permission and can proceed. The temporary access road also has planning permission so this will at least reduce some of the pressures on Guernsey Lane during the construction process. The developers now have to obtain all the necessary licenses from Natural England to disrupt the great crested newt corridor after which development can start.

Digital Switchover

The Digital Switchover team will be at The Brunel Shopping Centre, 29a The Plaza, SN1 1LF on 15 - 16 Jan 2010, to answer any of your questions.

 

 

Lorraine Chase for Swindon North

If you haven't seen Sleeping Beauty yet, then you might not understand the title.

 

You have only a few days left to see this excellent pantomine. It was a small audience today, because of the weather, but a noisy one as everyone enjoyed an old fashioned panto, adults and children alike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow hits North Swindon

For anyone who didn't venture out this morning, This picture shows Thamesdown Drive at about 9AM.

 

 

 

 

 

NORAD tracks Santa

 

Click above to track Santa's journey