Does Swindon Need A Fanfare For The Common Land?

The Coate building decision is now in the hands of officials in Bristol, the Core Strategy response stunned the council, so now's time to step back and consider the bigger picture.

Swindon needs to expand, for a collection of reasons, but sustainability is increasingly coming to the fore. Is now the time for Swindon to seek to designate land as 'common land' and prevent development or inappropriate use of it for the long-term?

Our town has many pockets of land that the Borough owns, Coate Water, Lydiard Park, Lawn, the open spaces of the post-war developments at Covingham, and Nythe, the list goes on. But should we now consider letting a ring around our town to stay as it is, green and made public for all?

Swindon Centric Says ; Swindon does not have a greenbelt, but that doesn't mean we can't protect those areas of land that the town wants to protect. It would make a statement about our town's environmental credentials.

Thoughts anyone?

Swindon's Stale Air ; What We Already Knew

Jonathon Porritt, the straight talking environmentalist was in Swindon yesterday, telling the Borough Council that it's not doing things sustainable enough.

This is rather shocking to local residents after the comment by Francis Maude recently that Swindon's authority is an all singing all dancing "model". Mr Porritt added that the council has to "make it work for people and the environment".

Swindon Centric Says ; Lets hope a vast improvement in the track record of refuse and recycling collection happens which would make things "work" for the environment and the people who have to live in it.