Your Comments - In favour

From : Liz Warner, Abbey Fields, Abbey Meads - 24 March 2004

Just a note of support for the stadium and sports village plans for the Old Shaw Tip. This would be a great development for Swindon and provide great sporting facilities to children and adults. I fully support it and encourage the rest of Swindon to do so as well. It will help put us on the sporting map and provide real facilities for bored children to use.



6 April 2004

An abusive posting from a young supporter living in Sparcells has been removed as it was sent by somebody else using his computer. The culprit is being dealt with.



From : Phil Brunnen - 7 April 2004

I cannot believe the number of negative comments received on your website from a bunch of NIMBY's (Not in my back yards).

They are being given the opportunity to benefit from facilities that would make many other communities envious. What they also need to consider is that the council will eventually sell the land to somebody, and maybe another large business park would be more useful to them.

So stop whinging! And be thankful.



From : Linda Jones - 7 April 2004

Swindon Town Football Club has been a part of the town for over 120 years. It has got a very memorable history and is important to a lot of local people. It represents the community and town at a national level which no other organisation does. The club is well known because football is the heart and soul of British culture.

To hold back the progress of a club with not only such a history but with such potential as well is ridiculous. A new stadium would finally enable the club to move forward because it would attract new or long lost supporters and new investors. Finally this town would have something that we could say does a brilliant job of representing us. Name anything else that does that.

Let us not also forget that with the ground would come leisure facilities that everyone could use, not just football fans. It would benefit everyone in the town.



From : Neil - 7 April 2004

I would love to have the stadium near where I live; less petrol money going to the ground!

It seems as though not in my back yard syndron has reared its head again! Inconsiderate arse's Where would all you tree huggers have the stadium built. I understand the traffic situation but lets face it on match day's the traffic is made worse by the ground being next to town.

We need a football ground built and thats final. If you tree huggers start planting great crested newt's etc. there, I will make it my mission in life to leave pestisides every where.



From : Chris Scott - 13 April 2004

Easter is the time of year when many of footballs ups and downs get sorted out and for Swindon Town a play off place and the chance to return to Division One is very much still in the frame. For the players it was a nervous time as Town's 4-2 defeat at Peterborough made only too clear.

Bouncing back from that defeat was not easy but it was a happy Easter Saturday with a 1-1 draw at home to fellow promotion contenders Bristol City and a 3-0 win at play-off hopefuls Luton on Easter Monday. A capacity crowd saw Bristol City held with much less trouble than a Friday night in the Town Centre, with just two arrests for drunken behaviour, outside the ground.

Swindon's final games, in May, are away at promotion favourites QPR and home to Hartlepool, who also eye a play off place in an exciting run in.

Swindon Town Football Club are making headlines this season off the field with plans to re-locate.

Previous plans have come to nothing, but there seems to be a partnership which can deliver this time - not only a first class stadium but many other sports and leisure facilities to benefit the community of Swindon.

Some are for, some are against where any development should be, but it is early days. As a born and bred Swindonian I'm in favour, but reservations of some residents near to the development need to be examined.

Many of the green fields of my youth are now built on despite protests at the time: Park South and North, Lawns, Penhill, West Swindon including Sparcells, all in their way important to the town.

In many ways developments like those are the story of Swindon. The Northern Development and the Front Garden are more recent examples and many other areas were once green fields with local people opposed to development. Development has been the price of progress.

The proposed Stadium and Sports Village plan uses a brown field site on contaminated land unfit for housing, the County Ground site is ideal for housing development. Swapping the County Ground for the Shaw brownfield site really does save some green fields.

There are many issues to be dealt with before Swindon Town play in the new stadium including consideration of local residents concerns, improved roads for better access linking to the new orbital road in the Northern Development. Perhaps a railway halt can be incorporated who knows.

Those involved have promised to discuss the issues which I hope will be in a common sense debate, to examine the project from a benefit to the community standpoint rather than emotion and the hysterical reaction of at least one local councillor.

I hope the project gets the go ahead sooner rather than later, the Sports Village could become a great asset for the town, not just for Swindon Town Football Club.



From : Phil - 26 April 2004

I have two observations:

1. There is no forest, just a small dirty hill from some small trees and some diggers on it. I don't know much about forests but I imagine it takes a long time to grow one.

2. Anyone who lives in Stenness Close will know that the trains that come thundering past every hour are far noisier than the fans at a football match or a pop concert would be. Would you like to get the railway cancelled as well?

Chill out, stop complaining.



From : Bill Burnside - 27 April 2004

If the stadium goes ahead, there will still be a forest.

It is not in the middle of a residential area - look at your map.

In all the pictures I have seen of Shaw Tip, there are no trees on it.

I suspect that most people outside of Swindonlink.com's area (West Swindon - you do NOT represent the whole town) have never heard of Shaw Country Park because it doesn't yet exist.

Stop misleading people and stop implying that all sports fans are violent low life.



From : Rob - 27 April 2004

The idea of a new ground & sporting village isn’t something that just Swindon football fans should be excited about; it’s something that will be beneficial to the whole town & surrounding area. It’s been very well documented for many years that Swindon is badly lacking many of the facilities that other large towns & cities take for granted. This opportunity must NOT be lost! If it is, then the minority of Swindon people will be to blame. The people protesting against this development are probably the same people who complained against the previous proposed development on the so called “front garden”. Just think if that development had been allowed to progress, we wouldn’t still be looking for a new site now! For ANYsite chosen within Swindon, there will always be a number of people who want to complain about it. This is the main reason why the town is still lacking so many facilities today!!

The proposed site is potentially an excellent location, assuming that the powers that be can sort out the anticipated problems with road access etc. Residents living in the area of the site have already started raising their objections (surprise surprise!). Why would anyone want to live next to a tip (or should I say dumping ground) in preference to a well developed & landscaped sporting complex. The model of the site (as shown in the Adv & on your site) shows many areas of open green fields, surely this must be better than living next to a rat infested waste land with a few trees on it? As for the area being known by the local residents as “Peatmoor Recreation area” or Shaw Forest Park (wherever did this name come from anyway?) surely this must be a joke? It’s funny that nobody had ever heard these names mentioned until the area was proposal as a site for the development – I bet someone had a hard job coming up with these names overnight!

If this brown field wasteland isn’t developed now into a sporting complex that the whole town can use with pride, give it ten years and it will be turned into yet another concrete jungle. Does the Front Garden ring any bells? Development WILL happen on this site at some point – money talks. Lets all have a say in the future for the site now to develop the state of the art facilities that this town so badly needs, otherwise there will eventually be yet more warehouses & empty industrial units built there!



From : Johno - 30 April 2004

The club needs a new stadium and new sport facilities for the town, and I think that sport facilities for the whole town is more beneficial than some trees in a tip.



From : H Mitchell, Shaw - 3 May 2004

I live in Cartwright Drive and I can't see what the difference is going to be really. The parking will be the same but the stadium will be easier to get to.

The sound won't be too bad as there isn't a game every day and we would get used to it after a while. I can't see what the problem is about not having the ground. There isn't anything to do round Shaw - something new will be great. I'm definitely in favour of having the ground.



From : Phil Allen - 3 May 2004

As a Swindonian born & breed, I feel I've got to point out the hypocrisy of some of the views expressed over the past couple of weeks.

The land where all of the residents of Sparcells & Peatmoor live was beautiful open countryside up until 15 - 20 years ago. Those residents didn't mind having those fields bull-dozed into a massive housing development, but when others want to develop a brown-field site (which all Swindonians know as a tip) with something that will benefit and add much needed leisure and sporting resources for the whole town they suddenly are against development to save the 'natural beauty' of the area.

I think if they wanted to save the 'natural beauty' of Sparcells they're about 20 years too late. And how come none of them complained when huge chunks of countryside were eaten up over the past few years for the new northern development, right on their doorsteps?



From : Rob Angus, Abbey Meads - 3 May 2004

I am registering my support for the new stadium proposal put forward at the Shaw Tip site.

I think it presents an excellent opportunity for the people of Swindon and surrounding areas. What is really exciting are the number of additional facilities planned including, cricket, swimming and athletics. Facilities that a town of our size really lacks. This development would provide great sporting facilities for all of the people of Swindon to use and would be great for kids.

I really cannot understand the views of those that are concerned at the loss of the Shaw Tip site. It is amazing that this wasteland can be compared to a country park. I have walked through this area many times and have seen the burnt out cars that have been left there and the mess the scramblers make. A great sporting facility with good access from the Northern Orbital Road which children can use is much better than a piece of wasteland that no one uses.

This is a great opportunity for Swindon and one that the whole Town must decide upon.



From : Mark Hanrahan - 4 May 2004

I want a Stadium!

Why would we possibly not want a stadium for goodness sake. Let me get this right - we're 'fighting' to replace a rubbish tip with a lovely new, money making sports development which will host good quality Football League standard games as it's crowning glory. Here we are as a nation constantly whinging about disappearing school sports grounds, national teams falling behind their Euro and World counterparts in more or less every sport that springs to mind and yet certain elements argue that it's better to have a rubbish tip than a new ground for Swindon Town.

Am I mad or missing the point or what?!



From : Dave, West Swindon - 5 May 2004

Assuming the Forest & Country Park goes ahead instead of the Sports Village, who is going to pay for the planting and long-term maintenance of the hundreds of thousands of new trees and plants that will be required? This is in addition to costs for construction of car parks and no doubt a great deal of landscaping that will be required to transform a large tip into a country park. Do the council tax payers really need to pay for another park when the council are already spending millions on a new country park not half a mile away from Shaw Tip at Mouldon Hill and the redevelopment of Lydiard Park?

Based on the experience of Coate Water and Lydiard Park, the extra traffic & parking problems associated with the new Country Park will be fairly unpleasant every Saturday, Sunday & Bank Holiday from Easter to Autumn. This extra traffic will continue from fairly early to late at night. There's also the worry that undesirable elements will congregate at night, as has been the case over the years in some of the smaller parks and play-areas in the town.



From : Steve, Westlea - 16 May 2004

To add some much needed balance to the discussion I thought it would be wise to answer some of the questions that have been raised by those against the TipStad, as there seems to be a certain amount of hysteria & scare-mongering going on.

• Stadium will tower over the area & dominate the skyline. Have any of you seen one of the new stadia, such as in Reading? They are normally the equivalent of approximately 4 storeys in height, in keeping with the local built environment such as the Renault building. Also the club have already stated it will be built in a dip so as to lessen any visual impact. The mock-up on the website is totally misleading. Also, it may actually be located closer to Barnfield Road, half a mile or so away from Sparcells
• A large drop in property values. Do you seriously expect people to believe your house is currently worth more being sited next to a working rubbish tip than it would next to newly built sports & leisure facilities?
• A huge increase in pollution. Surely by far the biggest issue regarding pollution is the thousands of tonnes of waste which continues to be dumped on the site. The pollution from a stadium would pall into insignificance when compared to what residents have put up with over the past 50 years.
• Loud music during summer weekends. If there were to be a few concerts each year, holding them inside a stadium would dramatically reduce the noise spreading to nearby areas. You may find the situation will be worse with a country park as they will be concerts, such as there are at Lydiard Park, and the noise will not be contained within a building.
• The removal of 1000's of tonnes of waste. There is absolutely no reason for this to be required.
• Parking chaos. I'm sure there will be a resident's only scheme on match days, similar to the existing one near the County Ground, where there are no parking problems. There will probably be more parking issues with a country park, similar to the problems around Lydiard Park.
• The use of local pubs shops & supermarkets by fans. Surely that would be a great boost to the local economy. Also, I'm sure most fans will use the bars etc. at the stadium.
• Bands of disgruntled fans roaming the neighbourhood. Obviously written by someone who has never been to a football match or a concert. It is more likely that local youths will congregate & cause problems in a country park, especially after the on-going trouble at Shaw Ridge.
• The complete destruction & loss of the forest. As can be see from the aerial photo on this website, the site is extremely large and currently the newly planted trees only occupy a very small part of it. There is plenty of scope to locate a stadium and still retain a large forest area.
• Probable closure of the Link, Oasis & Delta Tennis. There is absolutely no reason for this to happen. The point of the Sports Village is to add more sporting resources not replace existing one, e.g. there are no plans for an ice rink.

From : Barry Callan, Westlea - 24 May 2004

I feel the stadium should go ahead and would be an asset to West Swindon and all of its residents. People who are against it must be forgetting one of the reasons West Swindon is so popular is for its facilities.

They enjoy the Link Centre and Shaw Ridge without a thought for the people living near to them!

We have a wonderful park in West Swindon at Lydiard and it is has no rubbish under it!

So let's get on with the stadium before we loose the chance.



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