Some basic principles

THE photograph of the lorry with its wheel stuck in a BT inspection chamber (Swindon Advertiser January 12) gives an excellent example of the numerous problems associated with vehicles using pavements.

Inspection chamber covers situated on roads are designed to take the weight of heavy vehicles. Inspection chamber covers situated on pavements are designed to take the weight of pedestrians.

This concept isn’t rocket science. It should be obvious to any driver that driving on pavements is likely to cause structural damage.

The breaking of the inspection chamber cover and the lorry wheel getting stuck in the BT inspection chamber was a consequence of this lorry being driven where it shouldn’t be.

Until it was removed the lorry caused an obstruction to pedestrian access.

Once removed it would have created an hole in the pavement which, for safety reasons, would need to be fenced off or immediately covered.

This incident is representative of a severe and ongoing problem.

Swindon’s road infrastructure is abysmal. It has failed to keep pace with the ever growing housing estates, industrial estates, retail outlets and increased traffic.

Throughout the borough there are highways where the pavements are constantly obstructed by vehicles.

Apart from causing structural damage, vulnerable people such as the elderly, disabled, and mothers with children are constantly forced to contend with the dangers of roads.

Damaged pavements create trip hazards for all pedestrians but are especially dangerous for the vulnerable.

Our civic leaders are persistently reminding us about the need to save money and the need to cut services.

We have seen protests about the closure of children’s centres and the planned disposal of our lovely Lydiard Park.

It is ironic that these savings are seen as essential while the continual destruction of public assets, i.e. pavements and grass verges, is virtually ignored.

I suggest that illegal pavement parking is causing millions of pounds worth of damage throughout the Borough of Swindon.

Repair of unnecessary damage has to be covered by an ever dwindling public purse.

Prevention of this problem would mean money saved on repairs could be spent on essential services.

Roads are designed for and should be used by vehicles. Pavements are designed for and should be used by pedestrians.

It is high time that Swindon Council got to grips with what is a basic principle.

Something positive needs to be done to put a stop to the costly and dangerous antisocial practice of vehicles using pavements.

I hope the company which owned the lorry was made to pay for the damage done to the BT inspection chamber and the pavement.

K KANE Wharf Road, Wroughton

Star works for polio

THE British Polio Fellowship is keen to praise the work carried out by David Beckham in the fight against polio.

His profile has highlighted the plight of children living with polio and I am inviting him to become an ambassador for those living with Post Polio Syndrome in the UK today.

David used funding from a series of football matches he arranged to help vaccinate children in the Ali Addeh refugee camp in Djibouti and last year. He also vaccinated four children against polio in the Philippine city of Tacloban.

This kind of personal intervention can make all the difference.

And we would be delighted to welcome David to the team.

It’s great to see a figure like David Beckham helping to eradicate polio on a worldwide basis. Polio is preventable and we know from bitter experience that it can ultimately lead to PPS – a neurological condition affecting 80 per cent of those who have had polio, for which there is no cure.

We are working hard to raise awareness of polio’s forgotten footnote, which affects the same number of people as Parkinson’s and David would be a superb advocate for the 120,000 people in the UK living with the unwelcome legacy of polio.

The sooner we can eradicate polio the sooner we eradicate PPS and we commend the efforts of the former England captain and all involved in the fight against polio.

I hope we can join forces with David to tackle the causes of polio and the legacy it leaves.

The British Polio Fellowship is here to offer support to all those in the UK still living with polio and PPS. Call 0800 043 1935, email info@britishpolio.org.uk or visit www.britishpolio.org.uk TED HILL MBE The British Polio Fellowship Broadband questions THE chief marketing officer for UKBroadband said his company has not undertaken any market research with regard to demand for its 4G LTE service in Swindon (SA, December 18).

Perhaps he might enlighten your readers with some information which his friends in the council do not have but may inform the people of Swindon as to the commercial viability of UKB’s 4G LTE network proposals.

1. Would you confirm the statement made by the CEO of UKB that UKB’s 4G LTE system made available in October 2012 covers the borough of Swindon.

2. Would you confirm the statement made by Coun Renard that the UKB system made available in October 2012 is ‘operational and being used’ 3. It was claimed that the UKB system made available in October 2012 was accessible to 67,000 homes across the borough, how many are currently signed up to and using the UKB 4G-LTE network?

4. Why should the people of Swindon trust the word of an organisation which has already reneged on a commitment to provide broadband services through ‘Now Broadband’ an offshoot of UKB which disappeared quickly?

It will come as no surprise to know that the council does not have the answers to such basic questions as coverage area, customer take up, broadband providers and system performance. This one might be considered very odd, especially as an Internal Report dated May 2013 believed the monitoring of UK Broadband’s performance was considered necessary, indeed this was rated at the level of High in the report.

Against a background of failure to reach any reasonable percentage of the supposed 67,000 households, councillors were quite happy to pour £900k of council taxpayer money into the pockets of an organisation which has failed to ‘make a difference’ in the broadband market despite allegedly spending over £1m.

DES MORGAN Caraway Drive, Swindon

Protect park asset

I AM sure that Mike Bowden is right when he states that many Swindonians regard Lydiard Park as an ‘asset’ (The Big Interview, January 18).

Recent history suggests that his assertion that “Swindon Borough Council see everything in terms of pound notes” is also right.

There is a saying that accountants “know the price of everything; but the value of nothing.” And we seem to be in danger of being ruled by accountants.

I wonder how councillors ‘value’ their children? Do they view them as ‘liabilities’? They certainly need ‘subsidies’ all too often. Or do they view them as ‘assets’ that are, literally, ‘price-less’?

Lydiard Park has been ‘adopted’ by the people of Swindon. It is the duty of councillors, as our representatives, to protect such a valuable asset. Maybe better, sensible management could reduce any ‘deficit’ in running costs – and so eliminate the need for ‘subsidy’; but this does not, necessarily, mean ‘leasing’ it to a private company.

MALCOLM MORRISON Prospect Hill, Swindon

What is ‘affordable’?

LAST week, with the country focussed on the junior doctors’ strike, the Government slipped the Housing Act through Parliament.

This appears to relieve landlords of any legal obligation to provide accommodation fit for habitation.

It also sounds the ultimate death knell of council housing to let. In its place we are promised affordable houses for sale and to rent.

The Government is putting a one-off £140m into the programme which, if their targets are realised, equates to about £70 a dwelling. Barely enough to pay for the front door.

The bulk of the money is to come from “massive investment by the construction industry” as well as institutional investors like pension funds, together with buy-to-let private landlords.

When I was responsible for the housing accounts at Swindon Borough Council in the 1970s, an affordable mortgage was one where the repayments were no more than 23 per cent of the salary of the main breadwinner in a household. Affordable rents were slightly less at 20 per cent.

At the time the borough had a portfolio of about 17,000 dwellings to let to a much smaller population than Swindon has today.

Our construction industry apparently aims to make a return of 20 per cent on turnover, (see Taylor Wimpey’s recent year-end report).

Institutional investors will be looking for minimum long term yields of three per cent plus inflation.

Buy-to-let landlords probably won’t enter the market unless they can earn rather more.

Would either of our two MPs like to tell us what they think is an affordable mortgage and affordable rent these days?

Could they then give their estimates of the capital sums available to meet the planning, land, labour, materials and infra-structure costs of each affordable dwelling after the mark-ups identified above have been stripped out?

DON REEVE Horder Mews, Swindon

Devastating decision

TATA Steel, an Indian company, is ready to sack 1,000 employees in Wales, months after shutting down another three UK steel plants.

These men and women are the salt of the earth regarding hard working for a living. When these plants close economic devastation hits communities.

Now the Prime Minister, who would not recognise a hard day’s physical work if he tripped over it, has set in stone to send one quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money in aid to India by 2019.

BILL WILLIAMS Merlin Way, Swindon