First the FOI and now for some facts

Oakhurst residents tell ORA that they want a school within Oakhurst not a school at the end of a convoluted trek over mixed terrain.  Adver columnist Rod Bluh, who coincidently is the leader of the Council and his cabinet, has been a long way from the front line of the North Swindon school places issue probably because he has been organising a much needed North Swindon school at Croft first. 

Well we know that local councillors have not lobbied for an additional school where it's needed in the North.  They have been too busy shunting North Swindon s.106 monies to build sports pitches at Croft.  What is this fascination that the North councillors have with Old Town?

Let us look at some of the facts that the local councillors are not rushing to tell the residents of Oakhurst:

School Places in North Swindon - FOI Result

It is with some perplexity that ORA read that local councillors are finally waking up to the need for school places in Oakhurst.  Residents have been aware of this serious problem for years.

That is why Paul Exell submitted a Freedom of Information request to Swindon Borough Council in the summer.  The results were astonishing.

Please can you send us: "copies of correspondence received by Swindon Borough councillors or officers in support of/or requesting either additional primary places, or a new primary school in North Swindon for September 2011, 2012 or beyond.  Please also provide the year groups to which these letters of emails refer."

The answer came back "NONE"

North Swindon Councillors Did Not Lobby For Primary School Places In The North

There is, as our residents are constantly telling us, a severe shortage of primary school places in North Swindon which has resulted in :-

• Families in Oakhurst having to send their children to Rodbourne Cheney as it is their nearest available primary school place
• Families living two minutes away from their local primary school being told that families half that distance away from the school could not get in this year
• Families being told that if they live more than a couple of hundred metres away from their local school they are too far away to be guaranteed a place

In light of this a Freedom of Information request was recently made to Swindon Borough Council for :

 

"Copies of correspondence received by Swindon Borough Councillors or Officers in support of or requesting either, additional primary places, or a new primary school in North Swindon for September 2011, 2012 or beyond . Please also provide the year groups to which these letters or emails refer."

The total input from our local councillors trying to obtain more primary school places for North Swindon was, according to SBC's own answer to the FOI -

 

"None."

 

 

When will we get the promised Northern Relief Road?

Northern Relief Road

                                                                                         

The Purton/Iffley Link Road is the long proposed northern relief road that was first considered back in the nineties and still hasn’t been built despite the construction of over 10,000 homes in the Northern Development Area.  

Where will it go?  When Priory Vale was first considered the original proposal was to join the Purton Road (at the base of Thamesdown Drive) to the Iffley Road (close to the Bruce Street Bridges) by a dual carriageway.  There has since been another route considered which connects Thamesdown Drive to Barnfield near to B&Q instead.  Both of these routes would serve to ease the weight of traffic congestion in both north and west Swindon. 

How much will it cost?  There has been talk of the cost being £100 million and therefore too expensive to be built.  The honest answer is that nobody has ever properly costed the route.  To put the figures in context, the 9 miles of the Newbury bypass cost just over £100 million; the current project in Norwich for a dual carriageway of 8.7 miles is estimated at just over £90 million and the current estimate for the bypass at Bedale is £42 million (of which the local authority is paying just £6 million). 

The northern relief road has an estimated length of just 1.3 miles and no junctions.  However, getting under the Gloucester rail line will not be cheap.  Nobody will know for sure until the surveys are done but it is very likely that the stated cost of £100 million is an overestimate. 

It has never been the intention of Swindon Borough Council, or even the developers, to pay for this road.  It is a matter for central government funding and if Swindon Borough Council is going to green light all the additional houses that are continually being put forward then central government has to fund the infrastructure. 

Is it agreed?  Yes, it is agreed, all bar the paying for it.  At a recent Full Council meeting Swindon councillors made a decision to that effect.  

When will it happen?  That is a whole different question.  Everyone needs to ensure that enough pressure is applied to get the latest route of Thamesdown Drive to Great Western Way (at Barnfield) to be considered as Swindon’s number one priority for infrastructure investment.

 

(Presentation given by Cllr Des Moffatt at Haydon Wick Parish Council - September 2012)

Housing Development In East Swindon

It was very interesting to note that at a recent Full Council meeting the local councillors in North Swindon supported a motion put forward by Cllr Dale Heenan* that infrastructure should be place before any development in East Swindon goes ahead.

In the Swindon Advertiser (22nd September 2012) Cllr Dale Heenan said, "Oxford Road cannot possibly take all that traffic.  We don't want it going down Covingham...We need a new link road."

* Cabinet member for strategic planning & sustainability

Graham Mack Breakfast Show - Tadpole Farm Approval

Oakhurst resident, Steph Exell, appeared on the Graham Mack breakfast show this morning and rebutted comments made by Dale Heenan * - where were the ward councillors from Priory Vale? - about the approval of the Tadpole Farm development on 11th September 2012.

He believes that Swindon is excellent at meeting school place demand.  However, parents in Oakhurst may not agree with him.  Dale Heenan spouts out figures without backing them up with fact.  Let's get down to facts campaigner, Kareen Boyd, has demonstrated that the education figures do not add up.

When it came to the question about Oakhurst Way, he was totally unable to clarify how much money would be spent defending the local road from becoming nothing more than a major rat-run.

There were some glib comments about flooding and solving the problem by building more houses on boggy land.

Objective facts carry far more weight than vacuous blather so why do politicians use one rather than the other?

* Cabinet member for Strategic Planning and Sustainability

TADPOLE FARM FINALLY APPROVED - OAKHURST RESIDENTS KEPT IN THE DARK

On the 11^th September 2012 ORA learned from a twitter account hosted by a consultant involved in the Tadpole Farm application that the s.106 agreement had been signed off by all parties concerned.  At lunch time we were able to print off the signed agreement from the Council’s website.  It was outrageous that no-one had contacted the residents of Oakhurst to let them know what was happening.
 
According to sources in the media the local councillors were already spinning this issue or unavailable for comment.

ORA had to print off scores of pages from the Council’s planning portal to drill into the detail.  However, after much drilling the residents of Oakhurst will be disappointed to learn that there is no ground-breaking, earth-shaking improvement to what the original agreement said.

ORA’s interpretation is that there is nothing new to tell you from three months of negotiations.