Forward Swindon's task won't be easy
5:40pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in Your Say
Forward Swindon's task won't be easy
Swindon’s image needs to be improved, so we are told, in an effort to attract more companies and staff to the town, and economic firm Forward Swindon have been allocated £300,000 to generally improve that.
Mr Ian Piper, chief executive of Forward Swindon, is reported to have said there are some strong perceptions of Swindon which we need to change over time. Not a job that many people would want to undertake, I suspect.
What puzzles me is how has this situation, which apparently needs urgent attention, suddenly come about. Much industry and commerce have been established here over the years in spite of the town’s unattractive image, so what has brought about a seemingly worrying change?
Forward Swindon’s deliberations will no doubt reveal many reasons, but the town’s inability to keep pace with and deliver proposed redevelopments may well be a contributory factor.
Moreover, the often championed Union Square proposed development may well have brought a sigh of relief from those in authority, who will envisage the end of the vast open spaces, but the confident forecast that the town centre will at last be up and running in about 15 years’ time is hardly the right message to send out right now.
The saying, “actions speak louder than words” has never been more relevant than today.
How many times have we heard shouted from the rooftops that Swindon is not a cultural desert, only to realise that in reality we have a fine art collection with nowhere to show it, concerts with nowhere suitable to hold them.
How often have people made it known that the provision of these, together with other leisure facilities, rather than the provision of yet more shops and offices, will go a long way to change the poor image of the town.
Of course we shall be told that times are hard and the money simply isn’t there, which is quite true and will be the main stumbling block. I wish Forward Swindon the best of luck with their unenviable task, and I wonder if my humble contribution merits a couple of quid from the £300,000 budget.
Ron Burchell Swindon
It’s a sow’s ear
I see Swindon council are going to spend £300,000 to give the town a better image. The saying “trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” comes to mind.
The centre of the town has gone downhill ever since the Brunel centre was built and that was around 40 years ago. Nothing has been built since then except a new library.
Mr Bluh, please do not mention the library again and let’s move on. I feel like throwing books around every time he mentions it as it’s the only thing that has been built here for 40 years.
How exciting now to see we are going to get a new car park and sheltered housing.
The council are too parochial in their outlook. We will never have a vibrant centre that people will want to visit.
Lots of families over 40 years have grown up and the parents are looking for somewhere to go in the evenings but they cannot count on the town centre to entertain them.
Where is a civic hall that will provide all types of shows and concerts?
Swindon is getting left behind in a sea of mediocrity where nothing ever happens.
Gordon Staples Swindon
By-pass blunder
Further to your article (Adver, January 26) about so few motorists using the new southern by-pass – it surely cannot be a coincidence that all the signs pointing to the new road at the Croft Road end are still covered up, despite the road having been open for five weeks! Perhaps the three councillors need to get some new spectacles before going to see if the contractors have actually done everything they should have done before opening the road.
Tim Tumber Calne
Dunkirk revisited
I would be pleased to hear from any Dunkirk Veterans or their relatives who are willing to share any memories of the Dunkirk evacuation, May-June 1940.
I am especially interested in learning the date of their embarkation from Dunkirk and the name of the vessel.
Please contact: Nick Simpson, 27 Village Way, Wallasey, Wirral, CH45 3NY or email greenhow@ talktalk.net. Thank you.
Nick Simpson Wirral
Lock up dealers
The Sentencing Council for England and Wales have recently recommended that people who smuggle hard drugs into Britain should get shorter sentences.
When you consider all the misery that hard drugs cause in Britain, these new softer guidelines are difficult to understand.
I do not believe the British public support this coalition government’s policy of more lenient sentences for drug smugglers.
Terry Hayward Swindon
