Excited Council in the Market for a Cheap & Quick Erection

A plan for a 15 storey block of flats with no parking in a town centre would get a careful objective look you'd think.

Not in Swindon. Not when the point of having a planning system seems now to be pointless, with councillors and officers now in agreement, as it seems anything goes. That goes for a cheap and quick erection, especially if the threat of having to pay costs after it's in the other's favour.

Councillors positively salivated at the council meeting that approved it, as if it's the most exciting event since the last round of councillors pay increases or budget cuts.

The best of the show was the parish council for the area, highlighting the pokey nature of the size of the flats in the block, along with the shadow the building will cast on it's neighbours across Commercial Road, the lack of any car parking and the the look of the building.

From an official SBC point of view, there's no point having any 'Affordable Housing' designated in the block as it's not likely it's what council tenants need and want (you want to go down to page 62 in the link).

Makes you think if the council don't reckon they could rent out the flats, what hope the private sector?

No mention was made about the block going against the Swindon Town Centre Masterplan that any development should "complement the scale and massing of the surrounding town centre buildings" (page 109 if you can find a copy). Things have certainly changed since the council strongly objected and rejected plans before based on the appearance of the building.

Stan 'your local, but not quite' man got very excited and compared it to the David Murray John.

Stan really should know better than to compare a block of flats designed in a couple of months to a vast town centre rebuilding plan that was decades in the planning and building.

The irony seemed to be lost on all the councillors that the view of the town centre's landmark, the DMJ from Deacon Street , will now be lost when the 15 storey erection goes up in front of it.

One word of warning that the council seems to have missed comes from the owner of Signal Point at the railway station. Network Rail have been blocking that being turned into flats as it will make it more difficult to demolish and redevelop later. Is the council boxing itself into a corner with approving all the office to flats conversions in the town centre (two in nearby Farnsby Street in just the last year) making demolition far more difficult if something better comes along?

I'm not sure most councillors are that bothered, by that time they'll all be staring longingly, shivering in their macs at the vast cheap erection surrounded by illegally-parked cars, in the shadowy wind tunnel of Commercial Road with empty restaurant units.

One cheap and quick erection, coming soon!

Swindon Election - Lib Dems Chase Ambulance in Swindon!

If the Lib Dems learn anything from their Swindon campaign this election, it's get someone professional to do your leaflets.

And don't just photograph each candidate in front of the same ambulance at the Orbital in separate photos. At least Liz Webster's North Swindon leaflet doesn't feature bits of ambulance sticking out of her torso as her South Swindon colleague's does.

Swindon Election - Stan 'Local' Lassoed Man's Your Photoshop Fail Candidate

It seems Swindon's Liberal Democratgs Liberal Democrats aren't spending their money on their leaflets, as the Adver's Chris Humphrey's has found.

Plus, as seen here, the same leaflet for Stan (you remember him from being your 'Local', but not quite  Eastcott councillor) Pjaka Pajak shows he's only been photographed once, with the same photo of him in front of an ambulance, that's then been badly photoshopped to show him with bits of emergency vehicles sticking out his torso.

Someone needs to ring for help, plus his bad hair cut needs some trained professional assistance.

Swindon Elections - Labour, Lydiard and Losing Mattock Man

Labour gained two seats from the Swindon Conservatives in last night's local elections, and it all couldn't have been more local if you'd tried.

Lydiard & Freshbrook went to Labour from the Conservatives because they campaigned hard on Lydiard Park and House, getting the message and the groundwork right.

Up on the hill, Jane Milner-Barry won for them on pushing the parishing issue (which no-one, even many in the Swindon Conservatives fully understand), but also the Lydiard sell-off/lease-off issue was big too for voters in Old Town.

Worse for the Tories was that Milner Barry took the seat from the Deputy Leader of Swindon Borough Council  Former Deputy Leader, Councillor Former Councillor Brian Mattock (or as we like to call him, Mattock Man after 'his' astonishing list of achievements in his leaflet). But this picture of him is priceless (scroll down to 12.15am)

Once again Stan Pajak retained Eastcott, despite a very strong push by Labour (the Lib Dems won it by 228), and despite being the man who campaigned on being the local candidate, but actually doesn't live in the ward.

Now, you servants of Swindon's people, don't disappoint us.

Will Someone Please Think of The Children (and Councillors)?

Councillor Kevin Parry seems surprised at finding needles used by drug users in a park in his patch.

It might surprise him further then to know that needles, dog mess, and litter is found in parks, fields and open spaces all over the Borough every day of the week.

What's more worrying, but not surprising, is that with the complete dismantling of Swindon Borough Council, more and more of these unsavoury things will be found by more and more residents and less and less by SBC staff in the formerly called Streetsmart department (street cleaning).

But that's okay, most of our councillors like to put in their election leaflets about how they spend their weekends picking up litter in their wards (like Councillor Pajak).

There seems to be little else for SBC councillors to do. Democratically elected, allowance-paid litter-pickers, now that's vibrant and efficient folks!

The Lib Dem League of 'Local' Gentleman

A rash of election leaflets demand a little more than a cursory glance if Councillor Stan Pajak's is anything to go by.

Councillor Pajak's leaflet uses the word 'local' a total of 8 times and even goes to the trouble of pointing out where he lives in relation to Eastcott ward. He rails against the 'faceless' Labour candidate who lives in Abbey Meads and writes 'you deserve a 'local councillor who cares because they live here too!'

Two minutes-worth of checking finds that Councillor Pajak doesn't actually live in Eastcott ward, but in Walcot and Park North ward.

Whoops!