Roman Ruins Meeting - 8th May

The meeting on the Roman Ruins site was held at the Church of Christ the Servant, on Wednesday 8th May.  More than 70 people turned up for the presentation by the Land Use Consultants, allowing residents an early opportunity to discuss and influence the plans that would be put forward to the Swindon Borough Council.

Land Use Consultants were employed last year by Swindon Borough Council to consider the best way forward for the site.

Two members of Land Use Consultants outlined their initial plans and ideas for the site. Primarily, they are keen to develop the site in a low key manner, to help preserve what is there.  In terms of visitor numbers, they feel it will not prove a major attraction, with their prediction of under 30 000 visitors per year.  They believe the project has exciting potential, which will prove beneficial to the local area, and of great use to those interested in the Roman Ruins, and for school children and students.  They are keen to see some developement of the site itself, such as viewing points, web cameras, and a car-park for 10-15 cars.  They are also hopeful of siting a visitor centre, where the full story of the complex can be told, sited at the Asda Walmat site.  They also outlined how they expected the majority of the visitors to visit the Asda Walmart site first, and walk over to the Roman Ruins, thus limiting the levels of localised traffic the site would develop.

During and after the presentation, many local residents voiced concerns.

Many, many questions were raised of which a selection were:

• Who would be paying for the project?
• Would any development on the site be vandalised?
• Where would the 'small' car-park be situated?
• Would visitors really walk from Walmart?
• Would the site be enclosed or open?
• Would the predicted 30 000 visitors increase in time?
• Would the proposed car-park be used by the McDonalds customers?
• How would it actually benefit the local residents?

Many of the questions couldn't be answered, and residents were disappointed that wasn't actually proposed plans to consider.  For example, they felt it was difficult to discuss the impact of a 'small' car-park, without knowing the exact proposed location.

Both myself (Councillor Justin Tomlinson) & Councillor Owen Lister were at the meeting, and it is a clear that a further meeting is required.  This is your local area, and you should have every opportunity to influence these plans.  We will make sure a further public meeting is held before the plans go to Council, where there will be the opportunity for many of the unanswered questions to be addressed. 

We will also be seeking to raise the urgency of this matter at the next Full Council, as this is an extremely important local issue.  Residents deserve to be engaged fully in the process, and that means being able to have answers to all their questions.  We will be pressing for all Council Officers connected to this report to provide those answers.

I was also featured in the Evening Advertiser (Thursday, 9th May), " This is a potentially exciting attraction, but we need to achieve a balance between promoting the site and protecting the residents from unnecessary disturbance and I will do my best to ensure their views are heard."

Both myself and Councillor Owen Lister have also spoken on Wiltshire Sound, again repeating for the need to allow local residents to be fully involved in this project.

As soon as there is any further developments, we will post the information on this site.