Love Where you Live part 1

South Swindon Parish Council have been working hard to improve the outdoor spaces where we have all been spending  a lot more time during the past year than usual. It's important for many of us that these places get some attention, and things don't carry on needing attention with nothing happening to them. I have to declare an interest here, I'm a parish councillor for Old Town with a particular interest in leisure and amenities, and RHS's Britain in Bloom in particular. Bloom very much encompasses the 'love where you live' idea, and anything which can be done, within reason to improve the local environment, we're keen to do it. We have also looked into rewilding certain areas of grass to encourage biodiversity in some of our green open spaces. I met up with a local resident to look at the possibility of changing the grass cutting regime on some of the grass near the Magic Roundabout when we looked at the over flowing rubbish bin and rusty bench nearby. Could this be improved by the parish? I asked the question, and 2 months later, I think we can see the difference some experts in renovating metal benches can make. Here are the before photos:

Tatty bench and very small bin

And tada afterwards, here are Parish Councillors John Firmin and Abdul Hamid admiring the fantastic repair job on the bench by the parish council's maintenance officers.

There's a lovely piece in yesterday's Adver about it, and one comment so far which is positive 'Great work, it was an eyesore before this' https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/19079160.rusted-bench-outside-county-ground-refurbished-repainted/ 

Doesn't the bench look splendid? I think it can probably be seen from the Magic Roundabout very easily if you were to look in that direction. I can't say much about the bin, apart from the fact it does it's job!!

It would be good to have some sort of planting on the islands of the Magic Roundabout to register the fact we are South Swindon Bloomers and taking part in RHS In Bloom, however I have been assured this is too dangerous because of the traffic whizzing by. From the Magic Roundabout I went to Queen's Park, and a look at 'Turtle Storm' covered so well by Angela Atkinson here.

'Turtle Storm' will be having a plaque soon to let people know about Joseph Ingleby made it and a bit of its history, as well as a tidy up round the base. Tom Gleeson's much loved gorilla sculpture will also get some signage we hope. It recently was repaired and returned to its place in Queens Park.

Finally a photo of the birds on the lake, it was getting dark, so it's a bit of an atmospheric shot.

The Green Corridor walk from Cambria Bridge, via Kingshill canal, the old railway track, East Wichel, Croft Wood, Coate Water and onto Shaftesbury Lake has some challenging sections where this winter's rain have caused some problems. I walked along the section by the golf course recently and was pleased to see the progress being made to open up culverts and scrape the accumulated years of leaves off the path.It's a lovely spot: