west Swindon's
Magazine THE
No. 97 April 1990 • Circulation 10,500
"Fight The Poll Tax" A group of residents are organising a Public Meeting to allow local people to express their opposition to the Poll Tax.
Toothill Community Centre Tuesday 3rd April, 730p.m. Speakers include members of the Swindon Anti-Poll Tax Federation. "Many people wish to protest against this unfair tax. Don't protest alone. Join us at this meeting," said a local organiser.
Hoax emergency calls endangers lives Malicious alarm calls to Wiltshire Fire Brigade have been rife
since a fire engine was housed overnight and at weekends in the library garage at the Link Centre on 1 January. On page 2, sub-officer Pete Townsend of Westlea Fire Station describes the experience of being called-out on what seems to be a genuine emergency to discover on arrival at the scene that some distorted person has telephoned the fire service as a joke. In the three months since the beginning of the year there have been half a dozen cases from hoax callers in West Swindon. But a growing number of prank callers are being caught because the fire service have equipment which allows telephone lines to be held open and the source of the call to be traced in seconds.
Win a Royal Floral display to be brought back to life to Mail Yearbook mark Fifteen Birthday of W. Swindon Turn to page 5 and enter our great competition. There are 20 Special Stamps Yearbooks on offer. Complete with a set of the special stamps issued in 1988, the books are beautifully illustrated volumes giving the background to why the subjects were chosen and how the stamps were designed.
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I Our namesake is five years old. Turn to page 18 for news about the latest courses and the exciting changes in the ice rink. On page 19, Link Centre coordinator John Fisher remembers what it was like just before the doors were opened to the public.
An Exclusive Report by D.P. Inside, Civic Reporter
A valuable council investment in the environment is to be found a new home in time to celebrate West Swindon's fifteenth anniversary next year. 'Spring is Sprung,' the lyrical announcement to the world of the changing seasons, has gradually disappeared from view over the last few years. It is now but a memory, hidden by the large trees and shrubs that have grown up around it on the embankment between Toothill and the Great Western Way. Now Thamesdown Council is considering a radical plan to bring the floral announcementbackinto the public eye. A Private and Confidential report to be put to the council's Landscape SubCommittee at the beginning of April explains that the considerable effort put into creating such a powerful message had been lost and that the investment in the environment should not be wasted. The report comments that replanting 'Spring is Sprung'
opposite 'Swing Into Spring,' the new display along Tewkesbury Way that flowered for the first time this year, could have a wonderful effect on community life in West Swindon.
"Apart from lifting the morale of queuing drivers waiting to get into the town, the bright colour of the daffodils and the sentiments expressed in the statements is certain to lift the gloom of winter from people's lives, bring smiles to faces and generally improve well-being and happiness," the report says. It goes on to outline some of the technical aspects ofliftingand replanting the thousands of bulbs. It informs councillors that the police had objected on road safety grounds to a new engineering technique proposed by the
Landscape Department which would allow the embankment adjacent to Stansfield Close, Toothill to be rebuilt at a seventy degree angle, thus ensuring a better view of the display. The sub-committee is likely to defer any decision until after a site visit takes place. Commenting to The Link prior to the meeting, Ed Stanford, Thamesdown's Landscape Manager said, "I don't know how you got hold of the report. All I'll say is there has been some discussion about how to bring 'Spring Is Sprung' more into view."