ORA Office Closed For Summer Break

Please be aware that the ORA office will be closed for the summer break from 23 July 2012 until 7 September 2012.

Tadpole Farm Debate - Let's not gild the lily

After a recent spate of tweeting with people in Oakhurst we think the time has come to put the record straight.  ORA are not running with a political agenda despite what local councillors and their friends are saying.

If the councillors and a body of people, whether in joint enterprise or by disparate commonality, want to ambush ordinary Oakhurst residents and ORA then let them carry on.  We in Oakhurst know that the Association does not have a political agenda.  We had no influence in the council chamber.  We could not have a vote in what happened and ORA were only allowed three minutes to give their point of view.

So why is a little residents association that takes on the might of the ruling party being treated in such a way?  The story of David and Goliath is well known to people and if Oakhurst has to play the part of the former rather than the latter it is not a position we relish. 

Our aim in this campaign has always been against the inappropriate development of Tadpole Farm.  Our position has always been clear.  We want to see new roads such as the Purton/Iffley Road link and a northern spine road.  We all know the pressing need for additional primary school places in North Swindon but more worryingly plans for secondary provision are woefully lacking too.

When this is balanced against the local councillors’ desire for a community centre in Redhouse, ORA are even more concerned that the same effort has not been applied to secure the necessary infrastructure in the Oakhurst area. 

It is outrageous that councillors think that they can concrete over Oakhurst Way and scandalous that it is so easily spoken about as a general subject in North Swindon and at meetings.

We are not being political as we know that politicians from the main parties are in favour of the principle of developing Swindon.  However, what politicians need to understand is that their favour for development must not ride roughshod over this community’s favour for proper and adequate schools, roads and the right to a private life that is not disturbed by the imposition of a traffic route.

Be advised that various meetings are taking place with politicians over the next week and if you would like any representations made you can contact the Chairman, Paul Exell, directly on 01793 703276, email: paul.exell@rwe.com or go to the meetings and voice your opinion on the development or your objection.

ORA Attend Oakhurst Community Primary School Fayre

ORA would like to extend a huge thanks to all the residents that made us feel so welcome at the Oakhurst Community Primary School Fayre.

The committee really enjoyed the opportunity to speak to so many of you, to find out what you are interested in and what worries you about what is happening in Oakhurst.

Our thanks go as well to headteacher Dale Burr, his staff and everyone else involved in putting on such a varied and well attended event - it was good to see so many members of the community having a good time at their local school.

Invitation to a Public Meeting to discuss the Tadpole Farm Development

ORA have received this invitation to a public meeting about Tadpole Farm.

Dear Sir/Madam

Public Meeting to discuss the Tadpole Farm Development

I would like to invite you to a public meeting I have organised to discuss what actions North Swindon residents and community groups would like the Council and developer to take to mitigate the impact of the Tadpole Farm development. This public meeting will take place at Moredon Community Centre on Tuesday,17^th July 2012, starting at 7pm.

North Locality Fund Meeting on July 12th 2012 - Postponed

ORA have been informed by email that this meeting has been postponed.  Look out for further details on the blog. 

Comments from Dale Heenan

Dale Heenan has posted the following comments to ORA and he and Emma Faramarzi continue to tweet and post on Facebook about ORA. We welcome this effort from local politicians who are desperate to improve their readership to the extent that they are driving more web traffic to the ORA blog and improving our readership statistics.

ORA are now part of the interweb political conversation taking place in Swindon and this has been picked up on www.talkswindon.org. Geoff Reid is not one to miss an opportunity to expose and scrutinise the actions of the councillors at Swindon Borough Council.

Haydon 3 (Priory Vale) S.106 Highways Contribution - Where did it all go?

Cllr Dale Heenan, Member of Planning Committee, speaking about the Tadpole Farm S.106 Highways contributions on 12th June 2012.

"And this scheme will be built over the next ten to fifteen years, so what we decide in the next few months may not be what actually is needed in the area in ten years time, so I would also like the period to be there so that the Highways Officers can be, I wouldn’t want to say as generic as possible, but keep the recommended scheme of works fairly high level...."

Where did the Haydon 3 Highways contribution go?  Is this an indicator of what might happen to the Highways contributions of the Tadpole Farm S.106 agreement?

Authentication of Blog Communication - 'Dale Heenan''

ORA received a communication today via its blog comments purporting to be from a Dale Heenan.  As the communication came with a no reply email address, before we publish these comments we would like confirmation from Dale Heenan that the comments are authentic.

Councillors' Quotes at Planning Committee - Cllr Heenan

"And this scheme will be built over the next ten to fifteen years, so what we decide in the next few months may not be what actually is needed in the area in ten years time, so I would also like the period to be there so that the Highways Officers can be, I wouldn’t want to say as generic as possible, but keep the recommended scheme of works fairly high level...."

"If you look at the scenarios where we’ve had the hard working councillors, like Tomlinson, trying to campaign for things like the pub and community centre, these kinds of things are things we need to nail down now and this period of further negotiation would allow Officers to really tackle those kind of points."