The South Swindon Parish Council column

By Cllr Chris Watts Chair of South Swindon Parish Council

GWR Park Improvements

I am delighted to say that the improvements to GWR Park are nearing completion. Parish Officers and contractors have worked very hard over the past few months to deliver £130,000 worth of improvementsfunded primarily by Historic England and National Trust.

The new Blossom Circle and formal gardens will transform the eastern side into a vibrant hub of colour, where public gatherings and events can occur.

On 14 March, the Director General of the National Trust and Chief Executive of Historic England will be visiting the park to see the improvements themselvesputting Swindon on the map with these important heritage organisations!

If you haven’t seen the improvements yourself please do come and visit.

Swindon Blossom Festival

Supported by the National Trust, Historic England and the Town Gardens Café, the Parish Council is hosting a Blossom Festival throughout March and April to celebrate the completion of the Blossom Circle at GWR Park and the National Trust’s Festival of Blossom.

The Swindon Blossom Festival will launch on 14 March at 12pm with the Director General of the National Trust and representatives of South Swindon Parish Council, Swindon Borough Council and Historic England formally opening GWR Park’s new Blossom Circle. At the launch there will be walking tours of the completed works and the new features in the park.

There will be food and refreshments provided by the Town Gardens Café, who hosted their own Blossom Festival in the Town Gardens in 2022.

Events will be running right across the parish, with events and workshops at the new Blossom Circle at GWR Park on 5 April and 8 April and a music concert on 29 April; events in the Town Gardens over the weekend on the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of April (organised by the Town Gardens Café), and a Wildlife Discovery Day at Shaftesbury Lake on 15 April (organised with the Friends of Shaftesbury Lake). There will be family friendly art workshops and activity stands aswell as learning more about blossom and nature. For more information visit www. southswindon-pc.gov.uk/ blossom-festival

Badbury Park Community Hub

We will be opening a new amenity in Badbury Park later this year. We are currently in the process of designing the layout of the centre, where we will offer a new space for private bookings and a new community library, which will be run by our team at Old Town Library. The opening followed a public consultation last year where we asked residents on what they wanted to see from any community facilities. The feedback was that they wanted a community centre and a library and we are delighted to be able to deliver this for them.

A big thank you to Cllr Neil Hopkins, Chair of the Leisure, Environment and Amenities Committee who put together the business plan for the council taking on this facility.