Page 1 - link magazine

west Swindon's
Magazine

THE

No. 97 April 1990 • Circulation 10,500

"Fight The Poll Tax" Hoax emergency calls
A group of residents are organising a endangers lives
Public Meeting to allow local people to express Malicious alarm calls to Wiltshire Fire Brigade have been rife
their opposition to the Poll Tax. since a fire engine was housed overnight and at weekends in the
library garage at the Link Centre on 1 January.
Toothill Community Centre On page 2, sub-officer Pete Townsend of Westlea Fire Station
Tuesday 3rd April, 730p.m. describes the experience of being called-out on what seems to be
Speakers include members of the a genuine emergency to discover on arrival at the scene that some
distorted person has telephoned the fire service as a joke.
Swindon Anti-Poll Tax Federation. In the three months since the beginning of the year there have
"Many people wish to protest against this unfair tax. been half a dozen cases from hoax callers in West Swindon. But
Don't protest alone. Join us at this meeting," a growing number of prank callers are being caught because the
fire service have equipment which allows telephone lines to be
said a local organiser.
held open and the source of the call to be traced in seconds.
Win a Royal Floral display to be brought back to life to

Mail Yearbook mark Fifteen Birthday of W. Swindon
Turn to page 5 and enter An Exclusive Report by D.P. Inside, Civic Reporter
our great competition. A valuable council investment in
There are 20 Special Stamps the environment is to be found a
Yearbooks on offer. new home in time to celebrate
West Swindon's fifteenth
Complete with a set of the
anniversary next year.
special stamps issued in
'Spring is Sprung,' the lyrical
1988, the books are announcement to the world of
beautifully illustrated the changing seasons, has
volumes giving the gradually disappeared from view
over the last few years. It is now
background to why the
but a memory, hidden by the large
subjects were chosen and trees and shrubs that have grown
how the stamps were up around it on the embankment
designed. between Toothill and the Great
Western Way.
Now Thamesdown Council is
&u LI N K considering a radical plan to bring
cL, the floral announcementbackinto
CENT RE4 the public eye. A Private and
Confidential report to be put to "Apart from lifting the morale of Landscape Department which
the council's Landscape Sub- queuing drivers waiting to get would allow the embankment
I Committee at the beginning of into the town, the bright colour of adjacent to Stansfield Close,
April explains that the con- the daffodils and the sentiments Toothill to be rebuilt at a seventy
Our namesake is five years siderable effort put into creating expressed in the statements is degree angle, thus ensuring a
such a powerful message had certain to lift the gloom of winter better view of the display.
old. Turn to page 18 for
been lost and that the investment from people's lives, bring smiles The sub-committee is likely to
news about the latest courses in the environment should not be to faces and generally improve defer any decision until after a
and the exciting changes in wasted. well-being and happiness," the site visit takes place.
the ice rink. The report comments that report says. Commenting to The Link prior
replanting 'Spring is Sprung' It goes on to outline some of to the meeting, Ed Stanford,
On page 19, Link Centre opposite 'Swing Into Spring,' the the technical aspects ofliftingand Thamesdown's Landscape Man-
coordinator John Fisher re- new display along Tewkesbury replanting the thousands of bulbs. ager said, "I don't know how you
members what it was like Way that flowered for the first It informs councillors that the got hold of the report. All I'll say
time this year, could have a police had objected on road safety is there has been some discussion
just before the doors were wonderful effect on community grounds to a new engineering about how to bring 'Spring Is
opened to the public. life in West Swindon. technique proposed by the Sprung' more into view."