The Heart of Swindon: your voices

Our Heart of Swindon campaign has certainly struck a chord with Link readers - prompting many of you to write to us with your views.
Opening the floor to as wide a range of opinion and experience as possible and encouraging open, honest and constructive debate is vital and at the root of our campaign.
Here's what some of you have said this month:

Long term projects that could boost the town

Just been reading Swindon Link & well done to your initiatives & articles.

Just to add some more cheer, before I retired I worked as an electrical engineer in the Rail Industry, two longer-term projects which will help the town:

1) Crossrail, when opened it will enable commuters to travel from Reading into the heart of the City of London in an hour which has already & will in the future dramatically increase house prices, they are bad now in Reading but the magic hour committing will raise this. In Swindon with Paddington now down to 53min with the new trains & Reading much less our house prices will rocket, could be bad news for some but good for the town.

  2) I have been badgering Robert Buckland for some time to support the proposed Reading to Heathrow Rail Link, Network Rail have just announced a resounding 73% support for the link from business & councils, government approval will follow & it should be complete by 2012/3, again a major boost for us as it will make access to the bigger Heathrow so much easier.

  You may think these are too long term or outside the town but trust me it will make a difference.

  Keep up the good work

   Ray

Route from the station could be improved

I read your article in the current Link magazine with interest and agree with most of what you wrote.

The route from the Railway Station to the town centre should be easier and better signed.  One current route via the bus station which is absolutely disgusting, involves going through an underpass which is not ideal especially in the dark.

As just mentioned the bus station is dreadful.  If this was your first sight of Swindon you would get back on the bus/coach you had arrived on and leave immediately.  The place is filthy and if waiting for a bus or coach out of hours there is no pleasant place to wait and often the toilets are locked so unavailable.

Many of the pavements, especially in the area from the library down to the Pilgrim centre are uneven and badly maintained and most of the pavements are covered in chewing gum.  With many shops empty and limited choice amongst those that are left it is no wonder that people would rather go to other places which offer a pleasant shopping experience.

Yours sincerely

Sheila Mitchell

Why is it getting worse?

Hi, I’ve been to a lot of towns and even villages around Swindon (Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire...) and To Be Honest Swindon’s town centre is THE WORST ONE. Even some villages have more charming shopping centres. I don’t know why it is getting even worse with loads of closed shops.?

Kind Regards

M Reza Fereidouni