A developing story of dividing the Swindon community and betrayal of its people

by Roger Ogle, publisher/editor of The Link magazine and www.swindonlink.com, who has lived in West Swindon for 25 years and has reported the development of Shaw Forest Country Park for the last ten.


A football team is part of the lifeblood of a community and Swindon Town is no exception. Even though the number of supporters going through the turnstiles on an average Saturday afternoon are far outnumbered by the hordes to be found shopping at the West or North Swindon Centres, people generally want to see the team do well.

The club's new found confidence on the playing field and also in sorting out its financial and administrative problems is to be welcomed. However the proposal by Swindon Town, in league with developers St Modwen Properties plc, to move away from the confines of the County Ground, in the middle of one residential area, to impose itself on another residential area in West Swindon is wrong.

Swindon Council own both the County Ground and the country park site and by a process of land swaps and development deals hopes to make loads of money for the people of the borough. However at what cost to the environment and the cohesion of the town? The idea should be reconsidered now and another site identified before Swindon is unnecessarily split into warring factions and financial burdens mount up, which will inevitably attract national media attention to the town for all the wrong reasons.


So why does The Link magazine object?

1. Swindon Town FC and St Modwen and a few people in Swindon Council still think of the area as Shaw Tip upon which can be built a 23,000 seater stadium and a 'sports village.' Apart from a planting belt around the edge, every square inch of the country park site is proposed for development. Apart from the stadium, the St Modwen model shows an athletics track, a cricket ground, rugby pitches, a speedway/dog racing track around a lake, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, restaurants and two hotels with conference facilities.

But the crucial point is, the site is no longer a tip and nor can it be considered a brownfield site. It's as if Swindon Council were to say, 'extend the playing fields at Lydiard Park, after all there's a cricket pitch there already.' Or, 'drain the lake at Coate Water and sink a stadium into the bowl, and use the rest of the land between the hospital and the proposed university campus for sports facilities.'

At Shaw Forest Country Park thousands of people across the town regard the area as their country park, not as mature as Lydiard or Coate Water, but nevertheless a park in the making - Swindon's major new open space for the 21st Century.


In 2000 Swindon Council won an award for what it is doing at the country park and numerous Government Ministers have been shown this example of best practice in land restoration. Until 19 March this year nobody, other than club officials and senior people at Swindon Council, had a clue that the country park was being considered for a development of this kind. It does not appear on any local or strategic plans. Indeed the proposal would require further amendment to the Draft Local Plan to 2011;

2. Nobody knows what material is under there - there appear to be no records, nor information on potential levels of toxicity. The St Modwen model is designed on a beautifully flat landscape. Anybody driving past the site will know the steep banks around it. On top - 30 to 40 feet above the road - you realise that hundreds of thousands of tons - maybe millions - of Swindon's domestic and industrial rubbish between the 1940s and the late 1970s is buried there, capped with vast quantities of clay from the northern development.

Disturbing the site could have lethal consequences for the health of those living close-by whilst shifting the material around the site or to another landfill. It will be both dangerous and massively expensive and Peatmoor resident Brian Toft spells out some of these issues on this site;

3. There are also major problems of access. St Modwen imagine Mead Way will cope with the volume of traffic trying to get to the site. In fact every road side verge, residential cul-de-sac and shopping centre within a mile and a half will be jammed with cars because football supporters will walk to the stadium, stopping off for pints on the way. Many arriving by train will walk from the town centre. What they will get up to on the way back does not bear thinking about? Seeing the number of police in riot gear at the Swindon v Bristol City derby clash on 10 April makes you wonder;

4. And of course, just think of the noise from the pop concerts in the summer and the noise from the speedway track. No wonder people living in the 3,500 houses of Sparcells, Peatmoor, Shaw and Nine Elms are outraged by the proposals. For nearly 18 years people have moved to the area because they have been told the former landfill site was unstable and could not be built upon for up to 100 years;

5. Before anybody trots out the NIMBY accusation, this is not a 'not in my back yard' situation - people all over the town are angry. In 1993 Thamesdown Council's planning committee agreed a change of use from a landfill site to create a new country park close to the town centre, creating green corridors between Old Town and the northern development along the River Ray Parkway, and west along Shaw Ridge to Lydiard Park.

In 1994 a 'planning for real' public consultation exercise engaged people in the project and the site was included in the Great Western Community Forest 30 year plan to green the landscape. Since then three community tree planting days have involved thousands of people in the practical activity of creating 'their' new Country Park. Some 46,000 trees have been planted and the site has been colonised by a range of wildlife including a herd of deer. The Link magazine has publicised and reported all these events.

The many e-mails posted on this site express the anger people feel that the trees they planted could be ripped up. More importantly they believe the time and commitment they made and the trust they put in Swindon Council, to create a legacy for the town's children and grandchildren is being abused. To quote Katie C from Sparcells, a Swindon Town supporter for 16 years, "I was only 11 when I planted my tree and my brother planted one also. I planted my tree on the edge of the site so I could see it from my house which I dedicated to my grand-dad who had previously passed away.

"Never in my years of growing up did I think I was planting the tree for it to be demolished and replaced with a football stadium. I know some people say how it's only a few trees. But they don't understand that hundreds of people have planted trees. Surely they deserve the life they expected in being a brilliant attribute to what was going to be a great country park one day for children, and future children such as my own."



6. There is merit in seeing a range of sports facilities brought together in one location to enhance the range of opportunities available to Swindon residents. But one thing is for certain. Swindon Town FC won't be paying for them. Nor will St Modwen Property plc who are not investing in the project. They are property developers and will receive a significant fee for pulling together all the elements. Therefore who will pay for all the facilities? West Swindon councillor Nick Martin addresses some of the problems of financing a move by the football club on this site;

7. This is the most important point, by even entertaining development proposals for one of its country parks, Swindon Council is in the process of betraying its people.


As a council deemed to be failing and being regularly monitored by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, what greater failure is there to sellout on a policy on which it has worked so hard, and successfully, to get people to buy into?

In their excitement the local print and broadcast media have suggested at times that the stadium on the country park is a done deal and all that has to happen is for the council, club and developers to sort out a few technicalities. This is far from the case. The council tax payers of Swindon have to be convinced the proposal is a good one through public consultation presentations. Then the project has to go for outline planning permission, then detailed planning permission. From the emerging opposition on this site and the major environmental concerns, getting the go-ahead will be very difficult. If it gets through at a local level, expect to see the Government Office of the South West and the Deputy Prime Minister's Office involved, and perhaps a public enquiry. And appeals to various European Courts could follow.

This could be a long, involved, very messy and expensive exercise. The council tax payer should not have to meet the cost, nor should Swindon's reputation. Councillors on Swindon Council should, at the earliest opportunity, withdraw from any further discussion with the football club and their developer partners.

Download a pdf of this page here(586kb)


Click here to read the environmental risks

Click here to read about the financial issues

Click here to see an open letter to all Swindon Borough Council councillors

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What's your view?

• If you want the site to continue as a country park, email: forest@swindonlink.com
• If you want a stadium, email: stadium@swindonlink.com

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