Page 8 - link magazine

8 www.swindonlink.com - 10 years
Redhouse Centre meeting delayed into the new year

A public meeting on the masterplan for Redhouse Village Centre, and to view plans for a village pub have been put back and should now
take place in January or February.
The first phase of the centre Negotiations with pub operators
opened in Millgrove Street four have not been completed which
months late in September when has delayed a display of the plans.
The Works hair salon welcomed In the second phase of the centre,
its first customers. They’ve had a opposite the first shops, will be 426
long wait for neighbours to arrive. square metres of office space and
Tesco Express open on 7 December 47 affordable dwellings.
and estate agents Straker Goodman A market square will be built op-
will open in January. A fish and posite Isambard Community Schoo
chip shop and a dental surgery are to include a further three retail units
booked to follow. Love it or hate it, the distinctive block of Phase I at Redhouse with 34 dwellings above.
Access work on this later phase
has started. Developers Crest
Frustration at BT’s poor communication Nicolson hope to sign up the pub
operator so that building can start
Transferring lines for North Swindon from the Blunsdon telephone exchange to the newly built exchange in the Spring.
in Haydon End has caused considerable disruption to internet access and customers in Oakhurst are furi- Sites have been identified for
ous at the lack of information available from BT. further office development and
As reported in September’s Link, nection altogether. “I work from that Openreach had no duty to con- another pub/restaurant fronting
lines were about to be switched to home three days a week and this tact broadband users. “Information the market square. A sheltered
the new Haydon Wick exchange has made things very difficult. It about broadband services should housing scheme, a doctor’s surgery
on Thamesdown Drive and BT can take 5 to 10 minutes to receive come from individual ISPs.” and a church are included in the
Openreach did not anticipate any documents. Broadband customers have overall master plan.
impact to telephone or broadband “My main gripe is that BT hasn’t used the internet as the means A public meeting with Crest
services. told anyone what’s going on. The to resolve their problems and a Nicolson took place last March
However, the lines have tem- first I heard about any changes forum at www.thinkbroadband. and coun Justin Tomlinson said
porarily been re-routed while the was the article in The Link. I don’t com has been entirely taken over he was disappointed at the slow
work takes place, increasing the think there would have been quite by discussions about the Haydon progress since. “My fellow coun-
distance signals travel and reduc- so much uproar if we’d been told Wick exchange. cillors continue to apply pressure
ing broadband speeds. Software up front that there could be short People power seems to have on the developer to deliver the
engineer Geoff Mayo, who lives term disruption but that lines paid off and John Small, Openreach facilities promised in their glossy
on White Eagle Road, Oakhurst would get better.” Customer Service Director, has brochures. It is what local residents
said that his broadband connec- Chris Orun, BT Openreach press contacted Geoff with a promise that were promised when they were
tion is painfully slow and others officer, said that ordinary phone information will shortly be pub- sold their houses.”
in the area have lost their con- lines should not be affected and lished at: www.openreach.com • Village centre aerial - page 42

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