Page 4 - link magazine

4 The Link Magazine • November 2005
Five years on, Swindon is on the up says author
yr,ON.•y(_) Purton Hous
` < Church End In September 2000 journalist and author Judy Jones caused a furore by lambasting the town in the New
Purton, Swindon Statesman magazine. Her article concluded: 'Swindon's greatest tragedy is not that it has so conspicuously
Tel: 01793 772287 failed to reinvent itself as a go-ahead, culturally rich and vibrant city after the final collapse of its railway
industry in the 1980s, but simply that its elected representatives have barely started bothering to try.'
Call for details about our Not unlike the recent episode on in Swindon. Her trenchant criti- urban park surrounded by devel-
when style guru Wayne Heming- cisms of the town five years ago opment would be killing the goose
Organic Box Scheme
way made unfriendly remarks stimulated an idea for a book on that laid the golden egg. By con-
Vegetables • Fruit about the town in the May edition the revolution brought to South trast a university in the town cen-
Meat • Eggs of an obscure magazine, the Mayor West England and Swindonby the tre would give such a fantastic
was suitably distressed at the hurt- visionary engineer IK Brunel. boost to the town centre.
Deliveries & drop off points ful remarks and town worthies This summer she retraced "It would also be fantastic to see
in Swindon. Cirencester, expressed woe at being misrepre- Brunel's steps as he set out the a canal running through the centre
Wootton Bassett. Broad Hinton,
sented. route of the Great Western Rail- again. Every town I've visited on
Marlborough. Wroughton But in 2000 Swindon was well way. Her impressions, insights and my walk - Reading, Slough,
www.purton-liouse.co.uk and truly sliding into the pits. A comments collected whilst walk- Chippenham, Bristol, Bath,
shambolic and secretive bid to be ing from Paddington to Penzance Bridgewater - all have a canal or a
declared a city to mark the millen- will be published next year, in time river going through them. A uni-
nium was finally killed off by the for the Brunel 200 celebrations. versity and a canal would bring
DO YOU WANT TO Government at the end of that year. The Link invited Judy back to such vitality and dynamism into
MAKE A DIFFERENCE A second effort in the Queen's Ju- reflect on the town. "Things seem the town."
TO PEOPLE'S LIVES? bilee Year 2002 went the same way. to be improving
Do you value quality The failure of the Education de- in Swindon,
training and support? partment in 2001 led to political there is a differ- i
Do you have your own upheaval with Labour giving way ent atmosphere,
motor transport? to a Conservative administration more of a buzz
y which has run the council ever compared to
We are looking for ver special people since. Failure by the Social Serv- 2000," she said. a' . ^ •^,,.
k3
to join our team of CARE ASSISTANTS "Maybe Swin- = yule,`.=
to undertake regular work ices department followed and at
the end of 2002, Swindon was rated
especially evenings, weekends as one of the 15 worst run councils don in the sum- 1
mer sunshine is
and early mornings ^,I
in the country. much nicer to
SWINDON CARERS CENTRE Have things got better? Living look at, but talk-
1 Wood Street, Old Town, Swindon in Malmesbury Judy, unlike ill in- ing to people
Call 01793 542285 formed fly-by-night critics, ob- here and others
for an application pa serves at arms length what's going who have contact
with the town,
there is a greater
sense of purpose
rather than a drift
and malaise that
CURTAINS TO SATISFY EVERY REQUIREMENT was so apparent
five years ago.
• Free estimating, design and advice "I'm im-
x pressed by the
^ ^'' Home visits by appointment
National Trust
Make-up and fitting service headquarters and I'm glad the However Judy's criticism of the
council blocked commercial devel- University of Bath attitude toward
opment of Shaw Forest last year. Swindon is unforgiving.
"^roeeeeer e
The restoration of Lydiard Park In the February 2001 Link - when
looks interesting as well." the university was still committed
Judy's book research revealed to building in the town centre -
•
aspects of the town she wasn't Judy said that the University of
aware of. Her hike brought her Bath in Swindon was better than
from high on Liddington Hill into no university at all, but she was
the town centre via the Old Town not impressed by the patronising,
AND railway path and along the route colonial attitude of sending in'aca-
of the old canal. It caused her to demic missionaries' to educate
BLINDS reflect on the sprawl of the town Swindon.
and the imminent loss of more Her view hasn't changed much.
countryside - in the Front Garden, "Why is it that Bath, with a popu-
to the east of the A419 and at Coate lation of 80,000 has two universi-
Water. ties, and Swindon with nearly
"From Liddington you can see 200,000 people cannot have a uni-
large areas being proposed for de- versity in its own name? Bath's
velopment. The idea of building demands to go to Coate is very
16,000 to 20,000 more houses in imperialistic when promises were
and around the town must be a made quite recently not to build
concern to everybody. It just seems on that land, and now so many
Swindon wants to keep on grow- people oppose development there.
ing and growing and the reasons "I can see why there is such a
have not been clearly explained to great mistrust in the organisations
people. which purport to represent the
"Turning Coate Water into an people of Swindon."