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Is history repeating?

IT DOES not seem that 26 years have elapsed since there was very near a riot situation one evening at the Swindon Civic offices in Euclid Street over the setting of the iniquitous poll tax rate for the borough.

The then Prime Minister Thatcher was urged to press ahead with the poll tax programme in England by Tory Policy minister Oliver Letwin, despite the hatred and resentment it had led to in Scotland where it was trialled.

All warnings from ministers that it would be political suicide were ignored, according to Parliamentary papers released under the 30-year rule.

I attended the protest, more out of curiosity than anything else, and I was amazed to see a crowd of 1,500 people venting their anger at being ignored and having the tax undemocratically imposed upon them.

Someone had made a very lifelike effigy of Thatcher, which they hung from the front of the Civic Offices building with a noose around the neck, and then set it on fire.

This resulted in a roar from the crowd, and next day saw a plunge in the value of sterling after it was shown on American TV, which made them believe that a revolution was taking place.

I also recall the large wooden main doors to the civic chamber being splintered by the weight of the protesters who surged in to the chamber to make their discontent heard to the council.

I cannot help thinking history is in danger of repeating itself, this time at a local level, as we now a have very similar scenario in Swindon to the poll tax, where the Tory council, led by Coun David Renard, is hell-bent on ignoring residents by introducing parishes to urban areas of Swindon.

Parishes, by their dictionary definition, are peculiar to, and only applicable to, rural districts and villages.

It would appear the only excuse for Coun Renard not wishing to give people a referendum on the parishing proposals is that they would reject them, as who in their right mind would wish to stump up at least another £100 on top of what they are currently paying while seeing libraries closed, Dial A Ride cut, children’s centres closed and much more, all in the name of the ‘nasty party’.

Owing to a combination of councils being starved of funding from the central Tory Government and gross mismanagement of council tax spending on ‘pie in the sky projects’ while having the wrong priorities, a budgetary crisis has resulted for which the residents are expected to step up to the plate and then dig ever deeper in to their pockets to alleviate a situation that was none of their making.

In my previous letter on the subject I urged people to use their ‘people power’ and sign the petition at https://www.change.org/p/swindon-borough-council-give-residents-vote-on-parishes-or-no-parishes which was started some while ago by an Old Town resident who wished to see a referendum given to the people of Swindon on the major proposal and is backed by Swindon Labour Party.

However, it would appear that the notorious Swindon apathy of those that choose to whinge and grumble after the event remains true as to date only 278 have added their name on line.

This is a pitiful response which will only allow Coun Renard to ride roughshod over the opinions of Swindon people that he chooses to ignore.

G A WOODWARD

Nelson Street, Swindon

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Undemocratic spending

HOW things come around to bite us.

Swindon Borough Council had fought from early 1950 that they wanted to become a authority stand alone but it was not until 1973, when they became Thamesdown, that they began to manage more things in the borough.

Lots of things were carried out under licence from Wiltshire Council.

It was not until we became a unitary authority in 1997 that the borough council became responsible 100 per cent of its own affairs.

On splitting away from Wiltshire Council the borough got a head count bonus, at the time Wiltshire Council owned 12,000 acres of farms so they gave SBC 2,000 acres of council farms in the front garden and to the west of Wroughton.

Over the years SBC has become very rich. They purchased: Coate Water, Broome Manor farms, the Polo Ground, all land to the rear of Pipers Way and Croft Road, all allotments in the borough, the Town Gardens, West End Rec, the park that was swapped for half of Ferndale recreation ground in the 1920s, Ferndale rec, St Marks rec, Gorse Hill rec, Crowdys Hill rec, Pembroke Gardens rec, Moredon Playing Fields, Mannington rec, and hundreds more.

In the 1960s Swindon ratepayers’ money was used to knock down thousands of houses. We have the Wyvern Theatre, The Magistrates Court, all the car parks, the bus station and the majority of the industrial estates in their place. In 2000 the income from Swindon’s estate holdings was £5m a year, which at the time equalled eight per cent on the general rate as a relief to ratepayers,

In 2000 they sold the Brunel Centre and made a profit of £98m. They also sold off Barnfield Road depot with a profit of £32m.

They have sold the bus depot, and the bus station, They now propose to build Swindon’s fourth bus station in my lifetime. Fleming way was the main A420 through swindon. It cost millions to build.

In 2006 this council was £50m in the black, but that’s where it all began to go down hill. This dogmatic cabinet thought they were greater than Parliament itself.

They charged round to Wichelstowe, they had to build the southern relief road that had been on the cards since the 1970s.

They passed their own Act of Swindon Parliament and built canals, locks, and bridges with ratepayers’ money. Anyone can spend someone else’s money but they should spend it wisely, in a democratic way,

DOUGLAS STEWART

Former borough councillor

for Shaw and Nine Elms

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Independent Britain

THE British people have decided to leave the EU, a brave, revolutionary decision, our declaration of independence.

Now let’s get on with getting out.

We, the people, have to make a success of independence and seize the opportunities opening up. How do we make leave happen? Here are some ideas.

Stop giving money away to the EU. Between April and September 2016 we gave the EU £3.6bn net, eight per cent more than we gave it in the same months in 2015.

Rebuild Britain – our whole nation of Britain – England, Scotland and Wales.

We need a new industrial revolution. Design, make and trade.

Cherish our manufacturing industries and public services. Create a National Industrial Investment Bank to invest in growth. Strengthen links within Britain. Reunify our country through industry.

Use our own products, steel for example, wherever we can.

Stop EU laws and directives that override our interests.

Control our borders from now on. All who live and work here and see their future here are part of our class. Stop selling houses to foreign oligarchs.

Invest in the skills of all our people. Educate our own people, stop poaching from poorer countries. Write off student debts. Invest in research.

Leave the Single Market. We can sell to customers across Europe without being part of a banking, fiscal and economic union, without having to give billions to the EU, without having to accept every EU citizen who wants to enter Britain.

No to deals like TTIP, which are corporate protection rackets, not trade agreements.

We don’t need these deals in order to trade. Trade with peoples, not give aid to corrupt dictators.

Control our own fishing grounds.

We voted to make our own decisions. Now we have to take responsibility for building an independent Britain.

To do this, we need to discuss the way forward at work and everywhere we are.

Take control.

WILLIAM PODMORE

Clavering Road,

Wanstead, London

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The gutter press

JUST what sort of society and country have we descended to?

Gary Lineker shows compassion and humanity towards the refugees living in the squalor of the Calais camp and The Sun wants the BBC to sack him.

If he spewed the bile like The Sun does on an almost daily basis towards refugees and migrants the paper would have lauded him but because he opposes the rhetoric that comes from the paper he finds himself being insulted and vilified by, a paper that is lower than the gutter.

The absurdity of their attack on him is that they accuse him of telling lies, this from a paper that would struggle to print the truth even if it was to save Rupert Murdoch’s life.

MARK AND MARTIN WEBB

Old Town

Swindon

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Fantastic production

WHAT a blast from the past.

Seventy years ago, aged six, I was taken to the cinema to see Judy Garland’s version of the film.

On Saturday I relived the magic once again, leaving the Wyvern singing the songs and marvelling at the talent of all the SALOS team, it was magical.

I can’t wait for the next production, a big big thank you SALOS from one over the moon theatre buff.

Maureen Satchell

Covingham, Swindon