Do Swindon residents get a good return on the local taxes they pay?

Kicking off a new series of discussions about the state of Swindon, Peter Barnes writes

Councillors have a responsibility for keeping council taxpayers informed, so I would invite them to answer my questions below. Perhaps one of them could type a response on his/her new laptop supplied by the council ­ but I won't hold my breath!

The recent 15.5% increase in the Swindon council tax bears no relationship to either the increase in the cost of living, or to any improvements in amenities. So where are the extra monies to be spent?

In another attempt at city status to satisfy councillors' egos? Most definitely.

In more 'improved' traffic schemes? Almost certainly.

Having experienced traffic in Oxford Road before and after 'improvements' there, it is difficult to see what the intended improvements were. The road is still two-lane and the bus lay-byes have been removed so that buses now stop on the road - hence the speed of traffic is now that of the slowest bus. There is a wide (almost unused) cycle track for cyclists to get to the Greenbridge roundabout, and there it stops. If they try to traverse the roundabout to get into Swindon, then God help them! The multiple lights system at the Nythe Road intersection appears to have been designed by a young lad on some sort of work experience scheme! And all this has cost upwards of six figures! Was that money well spent?

Meanwhile, traffic coming from Swindon Road on to the Greenbridge roundabout still cannot see anyone stepping into the road from Slade Drive north side because of the overgrown hedgerow ­ and this after a now-defunct Labour councillor promised me several years ago that it would be cleared. There is a serious accident just waiting to happen.

In other areas, roundabouts that were working perfectly have had similar 'improvements' and are now so splattered with white graffiti that they cannot be negotiated in safety until they have been traversed a few times. I feel sorry for an outsider coming to Swindon for the first time. Why don't planners realise that these schemes may look good when viewed in plan, but these lines of spaghetti look totally different when viewed obliquely from road level? Perhaps they might also like to try going from west to east along Great Western Avenue, following the road markings. Three brownie points if they can keep to the correct lane.

Some years ago I sent a letter to the Swindon Transportation Department with a list of ten glaring mistakes in road planning where taxpayers' money was wasted. In reply, I was told to make an official complaint if I was not happy with the situation. They appear to have learned little.

So perhaps all you councillors who voted for these wasteful traffic schemes would step forward and be identified. We shall then know who not to vote for at the next elections.

2 April 2002



Park & Ride

Last weekend we went to Swindon and thought that we would try the Park & Ride scheme on the Wroughton road. When I arrived there I thought that it was closed as there was only 9 cars parked up.

After parking I went to the terminal to buy a ticket. There I met a chap who gave me a leaflet with times of buses to Swindon centre. When I asked how much it was to park he replied £1.70 return each to the centre.

Now I'm no maths genius to work out that for a 3 hour stay it was cheaper to drive into the centre and park up. What made this even worse was that he said that the buses were not running on time due to the traffic. When I mentioned that in Salisbury they have a similar scheme and only charge £1 per car at weekends he said that during the week the car park was always full.

I am in no position to dispute this, but surely if they lowered the prices at weekends for shoppers the car park would be full and the centre would be clear of a lot of unnecessary traffic.

Come on Swindon if you are going to use these schemes which are a good idea, price things at a sensible price.

Peter Thornhill
June 2002

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