The Town Centre Cluster covers Central and Eastcott Wards. The map below illustrates the area covered.
Town Centre Cluster story March 2010
The Cluster Chair is Cllr David Wood (pictured below) and the Cluster Lead is Mark Walker, Policy & Regeneration Manager, Swindon Borough Council.
Community Events in the Town Centre Cluster
Broad Green Open Day - 14th August 2010
The open day was a great success and Cluster Assistants helped out to recruit Street Champions. Street Champions are volunteers who are the eyes and ears of the street. They will report things such as fly-tipping and abandoned vehicles.
Queens Park Summer Fayre
Sunday 18th July 2010. 11.00 am - 5.00 pmThe Queens Park Summer Fayre was held on Sunday 18th July 2010. Everyone enjoyed the entertainment and many gave their views on future developments at Queens Park.
Children's Fete - Saturday 17th July 2010
Mechanics Institute Preservation Trust held a Children's Fete on 17th July 2010 at the Park, Faringdon Road. Lots of Young People enjoyed the activities.
“Seen a Sodden Sofa? Trod on a Tepid Tele? Think Street-Based Rubbish is, well, Rubbish?
Residents of Eastcott, citizens and the Local Community Council came together on Saturday the 10th of July, to spring clean and spruce their local streets. With environment teams from Swindon Borough Council,designated dumping sites were plotted around the area and the waste was taken away.
Contact Eastcott Community Council for further details Eastcottcc@hotmail.co.uk”
Eastcott Community Council -planned events for the year
Eastcott Community Council Open Day took place on Saturday 19th June 2010 from 11.00 am to 4.00 pm at Savernake Hall.
Eastcott Community Clean Up Day will take place on the 10th July 2010 supported by the Council's Streetsmart Team. The team will provide litter pickers, bags and gloves and take away any waste collected. Come along and help out.
More details are available at www.sendspace.com/file/wcp3hs A newsletter can be downloaded this is a large file (26.3 mb).
Broadgreen Community Council - projects are planned for the year ahead. More information will be available soon.
StreetGames/Parachallenge 2010 This event was held on Sunday 4th July 2010. Further details are also available at www.challengeswindon.org.uk
Queens Park Community Council - meets on the first Wednesday of every month in the Civic Offices, Euclid Street, at 7.00 pm.
The meeting on the 2nd June 2010 was the Annual General Meeting, this meeting took place in Queens Park at 7.00 pm. Members walked around the area seeking the views of local residents and visitors. Results of this survey will be published here in the near future.
New Chief Executive of Forward Swindon Ltd
Members of Town Centre Community Groups were invited to take part in the recruitment of the new Chief Executive of Forward Swindon Ltd. This was felt to be a positive step for the groups from Broad Green, the Railway Village, Eastcott and Queens Park. The new Chief Executive is Karen Walker. The community group members felt that the chosen candidate would be very successful.
Queens Park Easter Event - Sunday 4th April 2010
An event was held in Queens Park on Sunday 4th April 2010, this was organised by Queens Park Community Council. Activities included an Easter egg hunt for the children. The sun shone and everyone had a good day out.
Broad Green Community Clean Up – Tuesday 9th March 2010.
Following a number of discussions with the local community council a clean up day was organised to help resolve the ongoing issue of early presentation of waste, fly tipping, graffiti, etc. Officers from the Council waste management, streetsmart, regulatory services and Swindon Commercial Services set about tackling some of these issues. Members of the local Neighbourhood Police team were present and helped identifying areas of concern and seeking permissions to help with the free removal of graffiti from properties.
Local Ward members Cllrs. Bob Wright and Derique Montaut also rolled up there sleeves to help improve the appearance of the community.
Following a number of home visits, visual inspection of the whole area and all the streets having a cleaner environment.
This is not the end of the Clean up, work will continue to remove the tags and graffiti from the local area. Officers will also look to educate local residents as well as to take enforcement action against anyone breaking the law. The Council will work in partnership with Broad Green Community Council to help improve the current situation. If anyone has any issues or wish to discuss matters they should contact there local ward councillors.
Central Community Centre Event 13th February 2010
An open meeting took place for local people to come along and discuss the future management of the Central Community Centre. This consultation event was organised in partnership with members of the Great Western Railway Village Residents Association.
Local Ward Members Cllrs. Derique Montaut, Bob Wright and Junab Ali were present throughout the morning to meet constituents, hear their views and be part of the discussions relating to the community centre.
Throughout the morning there was a steady stream of local residents coming into the community centre to discuss local issues.
Also present was members of the Kingshill Neighbourhood Policing team to listen to the issues of the local community and to assist the Police team to help set their priorities for the local neighbourhood.
At the end of the meeting, a number of agreed actions for local residents to move forward the proposition of returning the Central Community Centre back into local community management.
If you are interested in supporting the management of the central community centre, please contact one of your local councillors who will liaise with the local group progressing this.
Eastcott Community Council Event 20th February 2010
A really busy afternoon whereby local people had the opportunity to discuss any issues they had with members of the Eastcott Community Council who had organised this consultation event.
Local Ward Councillors Stan Pajak and David Wood were present to discuss local issues, concerns and help address them.
A number of Council services were represented and the local Eastcott Neighbourhood Policing team. This allowed local residents to look at options around the redevelopment of Savernake Park, this created a good level of interest from young people and their parents with lots of positive feedback. This will enable the refurbishment of the park to progress later this year. It is intended that later this year the Community Council in partnership with the Council will have a celebration for the opening of the refurbished park.
Residents Parking was also present to answer queries and to give advice and information to local residents.
Members of the Streetsmart team were also present with waste wardens to discuss issues relating to recycling, waste disposal, fly tipping, graffiti etc.
A number of people discussed using open space to improve the appearance of the area, removal of waste and fly tipping and enforcement whereby some people abuse the local environment. A commitment was given for further investment to be made to help address some of these issues and community events will be organised in the near future to help address the causes of some of these matters.
The event was successful in engaging with local people and Eastcott Community Council see this as the start of the process which will help transform community spirit in the neighbourhood.
Community Priorities
Over the last 6 months we have talked to many people in the Town Centre cluster, we now have a list of the priorities that have been raised by local people. Please have a look at these priorities and if you wish to make any comments please contact Mark or Cllr David Wood.
Mark Walker is continuing to talk to people and community groups within the Town Centre area. Mark's contact details are given below.
Queen's Park Community Council event
Christmas Carols and Fun in the Park event was held on Saturday 19th December 2009 in Queen's Park.
Town Centre Cluster joins in with First Birthday Celebrations at Swindon Library
As part of the first birthday celebrations in the Town Centre Library the Town Centre Cluster placed display boa
rds in the Library together with survey forms.
The Cluster Lead also met local people in the Eastcott area on Thursday 29th October 2009 to discuss local issues.
Open Engagement Event
The Town Centre Cluster held an Open Engagement Event at The Parade and Wharf Green on Saturday 3rd October 2009. Lots of people came along to discuss their views on living and shopping in the Town Centre; also people were asked to post video clips on a new Videoboo site being used to gather thoughts and ideas.
Family Fun Day at Queen's Park
The Queen's Park Community Council held a Fun Day on Sunday 26th July 2009. The Cluster Lead attended the Fun Day to talk about the development of the Town Centre Forum and people were asked to support the next meeting. The new Town Centre Forum was mentioned on the publicity for the day
Public Engagement Event 'Care About Education'
A public meeting about Education was held on Wednesday 15th July 2009. The meeting was open to all residents living in the Eastcott and Central wards. If you would like any details about further meetings please contact Mark Walker at mwalker@swindon.gov.uk or telephone (01793) 464605