Selling off the silver

CAN I congratulate the Swindon Advertiser, first, the breathtaking front page in Wednesday’s edition (14/01/2016). Those beautiful green fields and Lydiard Park, soon to succumb to the builders bulldozer and concrete. A photograph which in years to come may be the only evidence to show our children of a once beautiful Swindon countryside.

As your article said hundreds of people from all over Swindon attended the meeting organised by the long established Friends Of Lydiard.

So many attendees, it took organisers by surprise. Lydiard belongs to the people of Swindon, in my mind it is an asset beyond monetary value.

Coun Perkins tried the old Tory sleight-of-hand comments and blamed the last Labour Government for the financial collapse and austerity. Someone near me called out ‘it was the bankers who robbed us, not the poor!’ Coun Perkins changed his tack at this. The actions taken by our current council administration, the belt tightening, the closures and cuts are all aimed at the poor, while the bankers who took our money are long gone.

Before 2003 SBC owned assets across the town which paid into the borough coffers.

In 2003 Swindon had money in the bank and assets across the town.

In the past 13 years the Tories have sold our assets and accrued a debt of almost £300m.

A debt which costs Swindon residents £400,000 a week.

This misguided approach to asset management and the Tory bankers sub-prime loan scandal are the reason the Tories look to dispose of assets like Lydiard.

Swindon could lose control of how the park can best serve the people of Swindon.

All the Friends Of Lydiard, those who signed the petition or attended the meeting must realise the objective of SBC is to assist the Chancellor to achieve a “low welfare” economy.

Remember Swindon (Thamesdown), in the Thatcher era, 1979 to 1990?

The rate capping attack on Swindon by Thatcher, the destruction of the GWR works, the business rate being taken by central Government.

Swindon survived these years by deploying the income from investments across the town and making sound financial decisions, to protect frontline services. Now the silver has been sold, what next?

What will the Tory councillors do? Put Lydiard into private hands, sell it, abandon it?

What about the Corn Exchange, possibly the most important building in Old Town, or the Mechanics where the idea of the ‘lending library’ began, the Medical Centre (the NHS); Swindon has so many ‘firsts’ it is hard to list them.

The Tories are planning to build a new museum what with? More loans, more debt! Stop digging, get out of the hole, let someone who can fix it, fix it.

MIKE SPRY Mayfield Close, Nythe

Decision against plan

I, LIKE many other Wroughton residents, am bitterly disappointed by the decision of the planning inspector to allow the development of 100 homes at Berkeley Farm, Wroughton.

This decision undermines the work Wroughton’s community has put into developing a Neighbourhood Plan.

Wroughton’s residents accept the need for additional housing and through the plan-making process have identified where they can best be accommodated without further development to the east of the village.

The inspector’s decision can only be disheartening to the hundreds of communities across the country who are developing their own Neighbourhood Plans.

In July 2014, Nick Boles, the then Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said in Parliament: “The coalition Government is committed to devolving down power to local communities – not just to local councils, but down further to local neighbourhoods, parishes and local residents.

“The Localism Act introduced a series of new community rights, including neighbourhood planning.

“Neighbourhood planning has changed this by giving communities direct power to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood and deliver the sustainable development they need. Local communities can, for example, choose to set planning policies through a neighbourhood plan that is then used in determining planning applications.

“The Government remains strongly committed to encouraging the preparation of neighbourhood plans, allowing local people to get the right type of development for their communities, while still meeting the needs of the wider area.

“The Secretary Of State is keen that all planning appeal decisions should reflect the Government’s clear policy intention when introducing neighbourhood planning, which was to provide a powerful set of tools for local people to ensure they get the right types of development for their community, while also planning positively to support strategic development needs.

“He is therefore keen to give particular scrutiny to planning appeals in, or close to, neighbourhood plan areas to enable him to consider the extent to which the Government’s intentions are being achieved on the ground.”

This policy was endorsed by the current Minister for Housing And Planning, Brandon Lewis, in a statement in Parliament on July 9, 2015.

I hope MP Robert Buckland and Swindon Borough Council will now challenge this decision which does not reflect the wishes of local people or the policies of Wroughton Parish Council, Swindon Borough Council or the Government.

STEVE HARCOURT Chairman of Wroughton Parish Council

Member of Wroughton Neighbourhood Plan Working Group

Cameron’s crass move

DAVID Cameron’s answer to a problem is invariably the same, make some wildly implausible claim and throw a bucket load of money at it in the hope the people will be impressed.

How else should one interpret his latest grand wheeze to spend £20m to make Muslim mums speak English?

In the quite amazing world of Mr Cameron the fact that a significant ‘minority’ of Muslim women do not speak English leaves them isolated from the rest of society.

This is simply not true.

For many Muslim women the idea of integration with non-Muslims is totally anathematic to their cultural and societal beliefs and it is crass for the Prime Minister to presume otherwise.

The way in which Muslim women are treated may be offensive to British liberal thinking but it will take far more than a weekly English class to break down the social construct on which the Muslim family is based.

As for Mr Cameron’s slightly delusional stance that young Muslim men turn to ‘fanaticism’ – which could be seen as our definition for what they may well call patriotism – because their mothers do not have a more influential role in Muslim communities, it is risible.

But, as ever, it diverts attention from the real reason why Muslims of all age groups support the ideology of a worldwide caliphate.

The £20m would of course be better spent on this town where it would achieve far more in terms of practical results.

DES MORGAN Caraway Drive Swindon

Bowie’s creative legacy

AFTER all the Bowie tributes on TV, radio and newspapers, it is phenomenal how one artist had an impact on so many people.

Not just through his four decades of changing music, but time again I hear the same poignant story, of how he made a young person unafraid to express themselves, whether that could be made through music, fashion, or sexuality.

He was a modest British icon and he played a crucial part in the freedom we have today, be that with music or the arts.

He inadvertently encouraged his fans and others to be themselves do something they felt comfortable with, without fear of ridicule or possible discrimination.

I have vivid memories of seeing Bowie as Ziggy in ‘73, certainly the most memorable concert I have ever been to, musically, theatrically and with fans of both both genders made up for the gig.

This was the start of glam rock as we knew it.

It does annoy me that some columnists can only focus on the negative mass hysteria syndrome, because people come on to the streets to pay respect with flowers and a cards, and generally mourn together with their memories.

Perhaps we should all retreat to our bedrooms and stick to social media? I believe it was right that the Prime Minister gave a small tribute, PR stunt or not.

Bowie was important enough to get all the accolades from round the globe.

I have some concerns that our future generations will not enjoy the same freedom to express, celebrate and mourn, as we can today.

Bowie was all these things, fan or not.

He used his freedom to change and recreate.

Long live that creativity he helped give us.

ROBERT WEBB Bideford Close Park North Swindon

EU is failing industry

BELEAGUERED manufacturing in Britain suffered another blow when TATA Steel said it is to lose another thousand jobs at its steel plant in Port Talbot.

Within the single market support for failing industries is considered to damage competition and is against EU Law.

Government help for the British steel industry would be illegal under EU rules even though the problem is caused by China dumping subsidised steel into Britain at below cost price.

The Government of Britain is just forced to stand idly by as, one after another, all our major heavy manufacturing industries go out of business.

Only by leaving the EU would our Government be free to support and encourage our home grown manufacturing industry.

STEVE HALDEN Beaufort Green Swindon