Build on out...
So; the traffic calming build-out on New Road in Chiseldon is probably going ahead. This is despite my robust objection to the plans, and no real evidence to support it in terms of the road safety or accident reduction being offered. In fact, from a Freedom of Information request I put into the Borough Council, I found that over the last 10 years there have been 12 recorded accidents along the road, of which only one occurred in the vicinity of the proposed build-out. In that single incident, it was unlikely that the cause was attributable to speed and thus any build-out installed probably would not have prevented its occurrence.
Three Tuns of Hassle
Picture Credit: The Three Tuns, Devizes Road, Wroughton (Brian Robert Marshall) / CC BY-SA 2.0 |
I had to laugh at another article that had surfaced in the Swindon Advertiser concerning the former Three Tuns Pub in Wroughton.
Having been a pub (and thus a licensed premises) for around a century, several residents have been attempting to thwart Morrisons' plans to convert the derelict building into one of their new 'M' Local concept stores. I'm not entirely sure what planet the residents were communicating from at the time, but I find it bizarre that an attempt was made to block an application for a licence at a site that was formerly a licensed premises.
Sochi 2014 - A Quandry
I've just spent a couple of hours catching up on the week's television - it's fascinating how TV watching habits have changed since the introduction of Personal Video Recorders such as Sky+ and Freesat/View+.
Nevertheless, I recorded a programme shown last Wednesday which looked at the 1980 Summer Olympic Games which were held in Moscow. Back then, when I was a mere two years old, Russia was still firmly under the grip of communism and had only just invaded Afghanistan. Both the United States and Great Britain tried to boycott the games, although some athletes decided to compete anyway under the flag of the games.
Regent Circus - Some thoughts...
I'm not one to lift images from the web, but I have borrowed the above from the PDF brochure available on the Regent Cirus website to show what the development should look like once it's finished.
There's no doubt in anyone's mind that the former Swindon College site at the end of Regent Circus was in poor shape when the college moved out in 2005 and it being left derelict, much like Aspen House which became vacant at around the same time certainly has left its mark at the 'top-end' of new town, not only aesthetically, but also economically. Ashfield Land purchased the Regent Circus site in 2006 and now the former eyesore is starting to morph into a clean and modern structure.