Betrayal of heritage

Only in Swindon could more than 8,000 people sign a petition on a local issue and be made to feel that councillors are doing them a favour by debating it.

The Advertiser’s story on January 7 about Swindon Borough Council searching for loopholes to avoid public debate on their ill-conceived plans to lease off Lydiard House and Park may have come as a surprise to many readers. However, for those of us trying to promote Swindon’s fantastic heritage (but now mostly engaged in trying to defend it), it follows a familiar trend.

As well as publishing a magazine about local history, we have also co-organised a series of successful local history-related events, most recently marking the achievements of Sqn Ldr Harold Starr and Swindon suffragette Edith New. But we are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to local history, which has involved hundreds of dedicated volunteers doing invaluable work to protect and promote Swindon’s heritage over many decades.

Sadly, Swindon Borough Council chooses not to listen to any of us, let alone involve us in their projects. The fact is: consultation is virtually nil when it comes to heritage in Swindon, and if the views of the public are sought at all, it is only after key decisions have already been taken.

Counciillors’ intention of opening a much-needed new museum and art gallery, for instance, involved no consultation whatsoever until it was too late for the public to have any effect on fundamental questions, such as its location. Public involvement and support is absolutely crucial to securing funding for this project, and if the bid fails it will be because of councillors’ reluctance to work with local people on any matter relating to heritage.

We are concerned that the future of the Mechanics’ Institute is also being decided in a vacuum, with the thousands of people who care deeply about this profoundly important historical landmark not even being kept informed of developments, let alone being invited to the table so they can affect its future.

We can only keep our fingers crossed that the Council do the right thing for the Mechanics’ in the end, but our expectation is that the ‘solution’, whenever it comes, will be revealed in the same ‘like it or lump it’ manner that has so far been applied to the museum/art gallery and Lydiard.

While the public is excluded whenever heritage is discussed in Swindon, there is at least one way for them to be heard – by putting questions to a full council meeting or when councillors reluctantly agree to debate an issue, as is the case with Lydiard. Unfortunately, if our experience of exercising our democratic right to ask reasonable and pertinent questions in the chamber (about Lydiard) is a measure of the Council’s definition of ‘debate’, anybody who dares to challenge them from the public gallery can be expected to be treated with contempt.

Even if councillors think it is right to be so disrespectful of council tax payers, and for our knowledge, experience, ideas and hard work to be considered to be of no value, you might think there are others in Swindon who ought to be consulted, bearing in mind the many professionals from the national heritage sector who have offices in and around the town.

It will come as a surprise to many people that there is a Heritage Board in Swindon. It sits quarterly and is chaired by the leader of the Council, with another councillor and council officers sitting on it. There are also representatives from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Trust, English Heritage/Historic England, the Science Museum and others, and one or two selected local history groups, including Swindon Heritage. Any other borough council would take full advantage of this unique, free pool of expert knowledge on its doorstep to make sure it has considered all options when drawing up far-reaching and irreversible policies on local heritage.

But not in Swindon.

The Council chose not to raise the Lydiard issue in front of the Heritage Board until last September, when an officer attended to reveal the decision to lease the house and park to third parties – a fait accompli that had actually already been reported in the Advertiser. Meaningful debates on the museum/art gallery and the Mechanics’ have similarly been absent from the board’s agenda, even though it mainly exists to provide this key advisory role.

We are probably powerless to change the local authority’s view that heritage is a liability rather than an asset that could be used to boost the image of the town and the local economy, but if they really want to wash their hands of it, why not work with local people who care about the issues, and let them keep a stake in it?

Anyone who has studied Swindon’s history in detail will tell you we are a self-made town. All of our success over the generations has been as a result of visionary local people working together to find our own solutions to our own challenges. The Mechanics’ Institute was the start of it, and that spirit is now in Swindon’s DNA.

Yet whenever current councillors need a solution to anything (not just heritage) their first and only thought is to commission expensive so-called ‘consultants’ to come here (probably from London) and tell us the answers, and then outsource to commercial organisations looking to make a profit.

We call upon Swindon councillors to rethink their defeatist policy on Lydiard and restart the whole process with proper consultation and a fair timescale that encourages members of the public and community groups to have a stake in the house and park, rather than loading the dice against them.

The Lydiard plan is a betrayal of our heritage, and councillors’ response to a perfectly valid petition is an insult to everybody who signed it and left heartfelt comments online. So we urge all those who signed the petition and care about Swindon’s heritage to show their concern by attending the public meeting at Lydiard Park Academy on Tuesday, January 12, at 7pm.

Swindon’s heritage is far too precious to be left to councillors’ dangerous, insulting and now sadly routine “We know best” approach.

Frances Bevan, Graham Carter & Mark Sutton

Founders of Swindon Heritage

 

Doctor of confidence
I HAVE just had a article pointed out to me at Mail online regarding a specialist at Swindon GWH.
In this article Dr William McCrea, a cardiologist at Great Western Hospital here in Swindon highlighted the little-known fact that two medium glasses of red wine can help to prevent strokes and heart attacks.
Many of you will be aware of this as am I. And if it helps keep you in good health and alive and kicking then why not?
I had the privilege of meeting Dr McCrea on January 5 at GWH.
He is a real doctor, not one of those doctors who are so very serious that after seeing them you come out feeling worse than when you went in .
He is a truly warm and caring doctor of the type we need more of.
He is serious when he needs to be but, and this is a vital factor in being a good doctor, he has a sense of humour and gives confidence to his patients.
Currently we are hearing so much about junior doctors and strikes.
This doctor gives anyone back their faith in the medical profession.
We need more doctors like this man.
He oozes confidence and encouragement.
Perhaps if we had more doctors like him then we wouldn’t be sick so very often.
DAVID COLLINS
Blake Crescent, Swindon
Country on its knees
I HAVE a problem as I get nearer to the end of my existence on the planet earth in this dimension.
Nobody is going to offer me a mortgage at the age of 72, are they? Not I that I need one. My point. All of a sudden, all of the common sense ‘get out of Europe supporters’ in our government, have changed their minds.
This spineless lot of self-serving creeps have succumbed to the Eton bully in charge of Britain.
Well, let me make a clear and decisive statement. Sexual assaults coming our way soon. Lack of housing for our own. Loss of our fishing rights as an island.
Inundated with cheap labour, to the detriment of our own British born and bred children. 
Our hospitals near collapse because of increased numbers who have not put a penny into our system. 
Increased crime, higher by ratio by immigrants than the indigenous population. 
The education system on its knees because of a massive increase of children who cannot speak English. May I stress it is not the children’s fault. Back gardens sheds and uninhabitable accommodation filled with people who should not be here in the first place.
You will not change my mind come the referendum Mr Cameron and your joint accomplice, Gideon Osborne
I firmly believe that the silent majority of fair-minded Brits of all colours and creeds will give you your democratic answer when the time comes
BILL WILLIAMS
Merlin Way
Covingham, Swindon
Failing in our duty
THE young generation in Britain are not getting the support they need to make a good start in life.
1.4 million people are waiting for a council house. The cost of buying or renting a house in the private sector has risen beyond the reach of most young working class people.
Surely every family deserves a decent home to raise their children regardless of wealth, class, race, colour or creed.
The young generation of Britain are our future and we need them to make a success of their lives if we are to continue to prosper as a nation.
Due to the desperate housing shortage in Britain we are failing in our duty to create a decent prosperous society for our children and grandchildren.
STEVE HALDEN
Beaufort Green, Swindon
Remove this man
The last time someone pretended to be ‘working from home’ when catastrophe struck he was removed from his post.
Silly Dilley should be removed forthwith as there is no way this side of hell that he was in charge of the situation or the reactions to the unfolding events.
DAVID HODGSON
Welcombe Avenue, Swindon