Looking Back to Find a New Direction

Work on building the area of West Swindon began 35 years ago. To celebrate the anniverary of this the Transport Planning team are using this as an opportunity to review the area.

The proposals set out in the Master Plan were based on an area of five fairly self contained urban villages - Toothill, Westlea, Freshbrook, Shaw, Peatmoor and Sparcells.

The original plan was to link housing areas with village and district facilities via a network of footpaths and cycle ways, segregated from main roads through green spaces providing more attractive routes away from traffic.

Few of the main roads in West Swindon have adjacent footways. Routes crossing main roads have been placed on footbridges or subways.

To gain some background information to inform us on travel patterns in Swindon we observed the latest census data to hand. The data analysed suggests that the orginal master plan for West Swindon has not had any real impact on car ownership, traffic flows or cycling and walking. West Swindon appears to show it is as car orientated as other areas of Swindon.

Progress to date

In March 2008 a questionnaire in the Link magazine was sent out to every household in West Swindon. Over 200 responses were received. We are now currently in the process of analysing these results.

We will be reporting our findings in Summer 2008. Keep a look out on this web page and the Link Magazine for updates.

Contact/Further Information

If you require any further information, then please e-mail us at transportplanning@swindon.gov.uk.