Swindon in the Past Lane

If you were unable to attend the two public engagement days at Lydiard Park you can print off this form and scan it and send your reply to lydiardfuture@swindon.gov.uk or post it to Rachel Watts, Asset Transformation Delivery Lead at Swindon Borough Council, Civic Offices, Euclid Street, Swindon SN1 2JH. Closing date is December 18. There have been criticisms of this process and the form. 1. Why wasn't the form available, not only as a hard copy, but also online. In the past the Council has used SurveyMonkey - see the following Wikipedia description -  SurveyMonkey is an online survey development cloud-based (software as a service) company, founded in 1999 by Ryan Finley. SurveyMonkey provides free, customizable surveys, as well as a suite of paid back-end programs that include data analysis, sample selection, bias elimination, and data representation tools. In addition to providing free and paid plans for individual users. SurveyMoney offers more large-scale enterp...

Is democracy dead in this country? If you were at last night's Council Meeting at the Civic Offices you could be forgiven for thinking it is in Swindon. Personally, I am governed by a political party I didn't vote for at either national or local level, but hey ho, I suppose this is a drawback of the democratic process. But do these people I didn't vote for have carte blanche to impose upon me decisions with which I seriously disagree. Is there no room for appeal or debate, even compromise? Well at local level apparently not. Swindon Borough Council is hell bent on leasing out Lydiard House and Park with the matter of the Council subsidy of £450,000 constantly quoted. Members protest that their aim is to reduce the council subsidy and, with the aid of a private sector partner or partners, generate new and sustainable forms of income. A number of experts in the field believe that this is possible while keeping the Grade I Palladian mansion and Grade II listed parkla...