Page 24 - link magazine

Swind5r
24
PARTY TENT Ignominy staved off
SMALL MARQUEE
HIRE The near unanimous vote by Swindon councillors of all parties at the
full council meeting on 22 July to re-affirm the policy made in 1994 to
Extend your
set up the Great Western Community Forest, and to protect all the
home phases of Shaw Forest Country Park from commercial development
i nto the =. regained integrity for the council, avoided a major split in the town,
garden VA dr and prevented the issue hitting the national headlines and drawing
6mx4m unwanted attention to Swindon.
Great for any special occasion 911lltlTI r, RU(KM, DRi. tOP€EE, __ As the only media outlet to oppose Football supporters will still be ask-
CNUTNE11, OPltEl, iA:.,_..-._. AJRE. the stadium on the forest proposal, ing why their hope for a better future
- weddings, birthday parties,
we are relieved that common sense for their club were raised only to be
anniversaries, events, etc. COMACI. ^hc's
PHONE; 01193 323015 MARKET .- has prevailed across all political par- dashed - again.
Lights i-icluded • Cheap rates ANDREW AND JOHN ties and Swindon Town Football Club
MOBILE, 07838158683 SW'Nl;. Incredibly the Shaw Forest Coun-
ESMONDE•Wit1E SNI -,:
Call 01793 436052 and their developer partners St try Park was mentioned in passing
OPEN MONDAY TO SATURDAY Modwen Properties plc have thought as a possible development site to
or 07866 570344 9am to 5.30pm
better of pursuing their plan. club officials in June 2002 at a meet-
ral Flights!
le .. experience o lifetime!

... Something different
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for someone special!

ights ft minutes

1 "^ Lk k i 1

22 July ce/ebrating a vote for common sense in the council chamber. /n the
centre, Shaw council/or Nick Martin who proposed the motion and coup
Maurice Fanning, chairman of the Great Western Community Forest
Having reported the formation of ing to introduce new Chief Executive
the forest ten years ago and the Mark Devlin and discuss the finan-
three community tree planting days cial state of the club. In the chair was
since 1995, which contributed some councillor Sue Bates, then Labour
of the 50,000 trees at Shaw Forest, leader of Swindon Council, plus
we make no apology for working former Liberal Democrats group
closely with the Swindon Forest Pro- leader coun Mike Evemy. and coun-
tection Group which took root so cillor Mike Bawden, present leader
quickly to block the proposal. of the Conservative administration of
In only four months of research the council.
and tactical lobbying, a small group Why a major feature of the Great
of activists with few resources were Western Forest ever came to be dis-
able to see off a multi-million pound
development company. This war
exceptional as most campaigns gc
on for years and are very harc
work to prevail against wel
resourced developers.
To say the least the stadium on
the forest proposal was bizarre in
its conception, marked by secret
background dealings. Apart from
the fact that a campaign is a great
way of stirring up apathy and get-
ting a community to concentrate
on what it believes important, the
process by which the stadium
idea ever came to the table in the
first place and why people had to
go through four months of stress
to win their case has not been
adequately explained.
1 00 YEARS OF DECORATION
•
BREWERS Chinese New Vearcornrnunitytree
plant - February 1995