31/01/10 Cllr Kevin Parry's Monthly Handy Mag Article

Gunter Gussefeld

Recently, we bid fare well to former Dorcan Ward Councillor Gunter Gussefeld, who has moved to Surrey to be closer to his family.  Gunter Gussefeld, known as Guss, has worked the Ward for many years and was recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented to him by David Cameron.  Over the past two years, Guss has given me a phenomenal amount of support.  I wish him and his wife every happiness for the future.

 I am pleased to announce that we now have a new Cluster Lead, Mark Hopkins.  I am looking forward to working with Mark and hopefully 2010 will be the year that Connecting People, Connecting Places really takes shape in the Dorcan Ward and the East Cluster.

Anti-Social Behaviour seems to have improved in Liden, making Liden Centre a much more pleasant place to visit at night.  I would like to personally thank the all the residents for reporting incidents and our Neighbour Policing Team, Inspector Mark Sellers and Chief  Superintendent  Paul Howlett for all their hard work.  The action taken over the past few months has shown that by all working together we can make a big difference in our community.

My family and I were delighted to attend the Christingle Service at St. Timothy’s, Liden.  Many of the 1^st Dorcan Scout Group were busy helping customers pack their shopping bags in Sainsbury’s that day, so with that in mind, it was great to see so many other members of the Group attending the Christingle service, particularly the Beavers and also the local Rainbows, Brownies and Guides.  I would like to thank the DorcanChurch for putting on such a lovely Service, which I know the children thoroughly enjoyed.

Part of my role as a Ward Councillor is to appoint Local Authority Governors to schools.  I am pleased to say, I have recently appointed two Governors to DorcanTechnologyCollege.

As promised, two bus stops in Eldene (Stubsmead / Bowleymead and Colingsmead) have now had official road markings painted and therefore it is now illegal to park in them.

Following a site meeting with the Highways Department, I have requested that the two Vehicle Activated Signs on

be positioned by

and the other by Ecklington.  I have also requested that Vehicle Activated Signs be installed on

In December, there was a misleading article in the Swindon Advertiser about the high level of arson attacks in the Dorcan Ward.  I do have some concerns in how the data was analysed, as the M4 Van Centre and other areas outside of the Dorcan Ward were included in the statistics.  I intend to investigate this further and hope to meet with the Fire Officer shortly to go though the data and to see what we can do to improve things in the Ward wherever necessary.