Page 48 - link magazine

48 The Link Magazine • April 2003
Long running club enjoys birthday concert
BLAYLOCKS
SWINDON'S FAMILY Haydon Wick's pensioner club
SHOE SHOP celebrated its 32nd birthday on 17
March with music provided by
Est. 1920
the U3A orchestra.
Sizes 37-42, The club meets twice a month in
£40 the Haydon Wick Working Men's
Club in High Street. It currently
Sizes } has 115 members with room for a
40-47. £40 few more. The membership comes
from Haydon Wick or within a
rieker mile of the parish council bound-
ary. For details about joining, call
Pat Cutting on 721616.
BLAYLOCKS Founder member Mary Parsons holds a
Bath Road Corner, Old Town birthday cake with Pat Cutting, left, and
Tel: 534271 members of the management committee

LETTERS TO THE LINK
Are you looking for
t RLI/y Experienced Childcare? Should be sent to the address on page 4.
m lete Pro e
^ P P Y Registered Childminder in West Swindon Watch out for footpath dangers
Maintenance Services has full/part time vacancy From Mark Harbour, Squires Copse, Peatmoor
+ Kitchens Reasonable rates, fully insured On Sunday 2 March my wife
Bathrooms Contact Caroline on 882641 Sharon and I walked to the
Renovations or 07762 054886 newsagents at the Peatmoor
Industrial maintenance centre via the footpath from
+ Plumbing Swinley Drive past Squires
^ Electrical Funky Monkey Copse. It has a drainage ditch
next to it and for sometime the
Carpentry H' Matthews footpath has been rutted by sub-
Floor & wall tiling - - 07774 779793 sidence. We again commented
+ Painting & decorating about its disgraceful disrepair
Mobile Hairdresser
Mobile: 07785 522377 Fully qualified. 11 years salon experience and also discussed the impend-
ing 15% council tax increase
Tel: 01793 616170 (Formally of Dawn Ford Hairdressing)
0real colour trained. Sorry, no weekends which will mean paying well
over £1,000 per annum.
We mused that someone
would fall and injure them- /
selves on the footpath and, irre-
spective of how much council
tax we pay, private areas seem al- from coon Stewart we have reluc-
ways to be a low priority when tantly taken steps towards legal
divvying up the council's budget. action, not because we want to join
After lunch we went for a walk the litigious band wagon, but be-
with Sharon's mother Dorothy cause we feel strongly that ordi-
Jesson to Peatmoor lagoon to feed nary people are being ignored and
the ducks and admire the litter. our money is wasted by a council
How ironic then that, walking who appears to have a compla-
down the same footpath Dorothy cent, blase, unaccountable 'not my
went sprawling across the foot- job' attitude about their positions
path. Talk about deja-vu! and the work they do, or not, as the
She was severely shaken and dis- case may be.
tressed and took some minutes to Mrs Jesson did not deliberately
regain her senses and dignity. My dive onto the tarmac and certainly
feelings rapidly turned from con- did not want to make a fuss; at
cern to blazing fury; we could not sixty years of age who can blame
believe what we had just wit- her? But all too often that resigned
nessed, within hours of our earlier attitude gives the green light for
conversation. large institutions like central and
Dorothy sustained two deep local governments as well as com-
grazes to her right kneecap, bruis- mercial interests to get away with
ing to her right thigh and a se- almost anything. This council
verely swollen sprained ankle. A ought to deal with the real issues
trip to the GW Hospital confirmed that ruin our quality of life: the
that nothing was broken. poor state of the footpath, the litter
On returning home I contacted problem around the Peatmoor
local councillor Douglas Stewart shops and all over West Swindon.
who said a Swindon's Highways These issues may be small com-
Department officer had visited the pared to world events but they do
footpath several months previ- have a major effect on the commu-
ously and had agreed that it needed nity's well-being. It is a great pity
attention. Sadly this has been ei- that our council does not have a
ther ignored or forgotten. sense of urgency about sorting out
As a result of the revelations the problems around us.