Page 21 - link magazine

See us on the net @ www.swindonlink.com The Link Magazine • September 1998 21
Can Swindon cope with more houses?

Ina joint consultation exercise undertaken by Swindon Borough and Wiltshire County Councils, the public are being asked to choose
new areas of growth by the year 2011 in order to build another 10,000 or more dwellings around or near Swindon.
Jean Saunders, right, Co- field sites are re-used before fur- • the Rural Buffer to remain as it
ordinator of Swindon Friends of ther greenfield land is taken. is, not to become a non-coalescence
the Earth, believes that the pro- • the housing figures to be chal- policy which could mean neigh-
posals are premature and that it lenged now that the Government bouring communities being sepa-
will take another ten years or more, has abandoned the 'predict and rated by just a road
just to complete the Haydon de- provide' approach • smaller scale quality develop-
velopment. She writes: • a national approach to using ment to be encouraged which
The Front Garden, Kingsdown, brownfield sites first to encourage meets the needs of local people
Lydiard Millicent, South Marston redevelopment in depressed re- and future generations and is plan
and Wootton Bassett are all under gions where transport infrastruc- led as opposed to land-bank led.
threat from possible major devel- ture is already in place and where We need a united voice now to
opment and it is all unnecessary. that is already earmarked for de- water supply is abundant protect our countryside.
We must make sure that planners velopmentbefore new countryside
concentrate on using up the land is eaten up.
There are still over 8,000 houses One of Diana's children
West town expansion meetlg waiting to be built in North Swin-
don where the building rate is A West Swindon girl appears in an ITV documentary 'Diana's Chil-
About 30 people turned up to ex- dren' on 31 August, 8pm, the anniversary of Princess Diana's death.
press views on Swindon's expan- about 500 dwellings a year, along
sion plans at the Link Centre Arts with empty premises ripe for re- Shelley Martin-Light, 13, right,
Studio on 6 August. furbishment or conversion in the from Rushey Platt, was captured
Arranged at short notice after a town. In a joint campaign Swin- on camera as a four year old sitting
protests from The Link magazine don Friends of the Earth and Coun- on her father's shoulders when the
that no meetings had been sched- cil for the Protection of Rural Eng- Princess of Wales opened the Delta
uled in West Swindon, a key con- land, North Wilts and Swindon Tennis Centre in 1989.
cern of those who attended was group are calling for: TV researchers discovered that
the 'coalescence' of West Swindon • assurances that the Northern Shelley's mum Gail Light is now
with Lydiard Millicent. Development Area of Swindon is centre manager. Shelley was
Based on a detailed analysis of substantially completed before any filmed in late July.
the options, together with infor- new strategic growth areas are put "It's strange that she is not still
mation from the public consulta- forward by introducing a strict with us," she said. "Princesses do
tion, conclusions will now be phasing policy ensuring that allo- not die in car crashes."
drawn up. Once these are pub- cated development land is used • Death of a Princess: how do we
lished, there will be a further con- first and that existing obsolete cope? Revd Anne Mackenzie
sultation period. buildings and redundant brown- writes on page 22.

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