Letters: July 28, 2016

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Foodbank safety net

Des Morgan’s letter of July 23, “Opinion of Cameron”, raises an interesting point on the use of foodbanks.

Des said they began their inexorable growth during the years of Tony Blair, I shall leave that open to debate (no I’m not a fan of Blair, Des, not by a long way).

Some figures for Des to ponder over regarding the rise of foodbanks. In 2004 there were two known foodbanks. In 2008, the year of the financial crash, there were 22, with around 26,000 visitors, as of April this year there were 424 foodbanks with over 550,000 visitors, this taking into account that some people used them more than once over a certain period of time.

However, I’m sure Des would agree that the austerity measures implemented by David Cameron and cuts to people’s benefits has had a huge impact on foodbank figures. Two contributing factors in the rise of the foodbank use may also be the break-up of marriage or death of a partner, these two never seem to be included in any report that I have read. Overall, most people would agree that the figures of 550,000 food parcels being handed over to users of foodbanks is a stain on any government, but what would people do without the safety net of the local foodbank?

MARK WEBB

Old Town

Swindon

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Where were the Tories?

I RESPOND to your report (Call goes out for tolerance, councillors unite against prejudice, July 18) in which you report that councillors from all three parties represented in the chamber came together in a determined show of unity to oppose post-Brexit intolerance.

I was one of the 100 people who took part in the pro-refugee, anti-racist demonstration in Swindon Centre on July 10 and of which the Adver gave good coverage of, amongst the speakers from the Swindon Labour Party and members from the Swindon Green Party, but where were the speakers from the Lib-Dems and the Tories?

It would have been good to have seen the town’s two Tories, Buckland and Tomlinson, give a talk but they were nowhere to be seen, and while it was nice to read that councillors from the three parties in the Chamber come together in a show of unity to oppose intolerance, it would have been better and would have shown more solidarity if they spoke at the demonstration on July 10.

NAME SUPPLIED

Old Town

Swindon

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Council’s parish plans

LAST week I attended a Community Engagement Meeting in Rodbourne with members and officers of Swindon Borough Council. This was a public meeting but as it was not very well advertised and thus not very well attended I feel I should inform your readers of some of the consequences of what the borough council are proposing.

As Council Tax has remained static for several years and costs have increased the borough council has been looking for another way of raising revenue. They came up with the idea of passing more of the tasks they were responsible for such as community centres, parks (eg Faringdon Park), local play areas, litter clearing, grass and hedge cutting, dog bins, graffiti, flyposting etc on to local parish councils.

These local parishes then raise their own revenue from households to cover the costs by levying their own parish rate from each household in the parish that residents will have to pay.

There are already several parish councils in the Borough of Swindon but there are also many non-parished areas such as the town centre, Rodbourne, Ferndale, Gorse Hill and Penhill.

The council’s proposal is to change some of the existing parish boundaries to take in some of the non-parished areas but also to create some new parishes.

They have prepared two maps and in each of these a new central parish is proposed this varies in size depending on which of the suggestions is adopted but it will include at least the town centre, Rodbourne, Ferndale, Gorse Hill and Penhill. This parish, covering the town centre, will then have to raise sufficient money from its residents to do the tasks such as litter clearing. I referred to previously.

The town centre is used by all residents and the costs of dealing with the tasks to be delegated to the parishes would be particularly high here so it seems extremely unfair to make just some local residents pay.

The council suggests these costs could be reduced if local businesses contribute voluntarily and estimate they will do so by approximately £400,000 per annum but they have no firm obligation to do this and even if they volunteer in one year they will not necessarily continue.

Residents, however, will be legally bound to pay Council Tax plus Parish Tax however much it is annually.

Those of us not currently in parishes already pay an amount called Swindon non-parish area but as the council has stated this is not enough to cover all the items they want the parish to cover this would have to be increased year on year.

A new parish would have to pay staff, buy or hire machinery, have premises to operate from, incurring further costs. It would be another and unnecessary tier of governance costing even more money for us residents to find.

The council has already commenced this process and I urge all residents of Swindon to examine these proposals closely and get involved in this consultation urgently.

The deadline for responding on boundaries is July 31 so there is a very tight time scale.

SUE BARNES

Lynmouth Road

Rodbourne

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Nothing ever changes

I READ your page by Barrie Hudson (Adver, July 26) and this is no surprise to me to see the crime rates across the board going through the roof and then some senior official putting some spin on the figures to make sure his or her budget is not touched – got to keep the cucumber sandwiches and after work parties going, don’t we, and the jollies to the West Indies to see how they patrol the beaches.

We all know there are not enough frontline bobbies on the beat and the ones we do have are being sent all over the gaff.

I use Thamesdown Drive and the A417/A419 towards the M5 on a daily basis, sometimes seven days a week.

Over the past 32 weeks I have not seen a single policeman or policewoman on either of those roads with a speed gun to try and capture the idiots who seem to think that because the road splits into three lanes they can say, “Yippee, it’s a motorway, now I can do 70mph or I can push across all the lanes at the last second,” to get onto the southbound C/W heading to the M4 again, causing law abiding drivers to take action to stop the muppets from crashing into you.

On the A419 heading to Birdlip there are a few raised parking ramps, yes, you’re right, for a police car to park up.

One of the officers gets out and uses a speed gun to capture more idiots tanking along this road doing 100mph+.

That’s what they had been built for, or so I thought.

Over the 32 weeks I have not seen a single police car on one of these ramps, they are being maintained by someone, being paid to be maintained by someone, but no-one is using them.

Well, not the police – I did see a roe deer once laying in the sun on one last year in the last heat wave I think.

Will anything ever change?

No, I don’t think so because no matter what’s put forward to stop the idiots from speeding, someone somewhere will be sucking on his or her biro tutting and saying (again you guessed it), “Sorry, got no money to pay for that, let’s just bury our heads in the sand, it may blow over.”

JOHN L CROOK

Haydon Wick

Swindon

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Service provides lifeline

I AM writing in response to the Adver article on council cuts to Swindon Dial a Ride.

At the February budget meeting the Conservative councillors agreed to cut £100k from the Dial a Ride service which receives £310k per year from Swindon Council.

The existing Dial a Ride contract is due to expire at the end of August and Swindon Council will have the option of extending the existing Dial a Ride contract or putting out to tender a new contract.

Now we have learnt that the council is claiming the £100k cut to Dial a Ride is only a part year cut and the cut will be more in the region of £200k, the next year.

That’s two-thirds of Dial a Ride’s overall funding.

I have seen no authorisation either from Full Council or Cabinet that a full year cut of around £200k will be made to the Dial a Ride service.

Such a significant cut without further council authorisation would be unlawful in my opinion.

Together with Coun Stan Pajak, I have written to the chief executive of Swindon Council calling on the council to assure Dial a Ride that there will be no cut above the £100k that had previously been agreed. The stakes on this issue could barely be higher.

The Dial a Ride service offers a lifeline for our town’s most disabled people and our elderly, stopping them living in isolation.

They provide more than 6,000 journeys every year for their users.

Ten per cent of these journeys were based on health grounds and many of these journeys provide disabled people transport to work or education. Offering a taxi service for these people simply is not adequate because of the Dial a Ride users’ disabilities.

A cut of £100k per year could lead to the ending of the service but a cut of £200k per year will all but make it certain that Swindon Dial a Ride will have to close.

I know there is still huge admiration in the town for the service Dial a Ride provides.

In the past the Council has given its wholehearted commitment to Dial a Ride and my fear is that the Cabinet are looking to erode this commitment, with the end of the service we know and value.

COUN DERIQUE MONTAUT

Liden, Eldene and Park South