It was great to see so many local residents at my busy community advice surgery at Broadgreen Community Centre on Saturday. I was pleased to be joined by Conservative Central Ward Councillor Anabelle Pegado, and Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson, who was able to give residents updates on the work being carried out by Wiltshire Police locally. Thanks to all of the residents who attended and the team for all of their hard work.
I am very pleased that the Government funded Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme will be running here in Swindon again over the school summer holidays. The Department for Education has provided funding to Swindon Borough Council to coordinate the programme that provides healthy food and enriching activities to eligible children throughout the school holidays for this year. Around 7,000 children across Swindon will be eligible for free holiday provision over these periods.
Children who take up a place at a free holiday club will have the opportunity to eat more healthily over the school holidays, be more active by being involved in physical activities aimed at developing resilience, character, and wellbeing, be safe and not socially isolated over holiday periods and, most importantly, have fun with friends.
I am also pleased that parish councils here in south Swindon are running free activities for children over the summer, including Nythe, Eldene and Liden Parish Council, who have funded free summer multi-sports sessions for children aged between 5 and 16 at The Dorcan Academy.
The Summer Reading Challenge will also be taking place throughout the school summer holidays. This brilliant free challenge keeps children’s minds and bodies active over the summer break, empowering young people to forge new connections with others and unleash the power of play, sport, and physical activity through reading. For further details, please visit https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/
You may have read in previous columns about my ongoing Speeding and Anti-Social Vehicle Behaviour Campaign. I work closely with Wiltshire Police and the Community Safety Team at Swindon Borough Council as part of this campaign, so I was pleased to receive an update last week on Project Zero, a roads policing operation held every week at a different location in the county. It sees officers targeting drivers committing any of the fatal five offences (driving at excess speed, drink/drug driving, using a phone whilst driving, not wearing a seatbelt, or driving in a careless or dangerous manner) in a bid to reduce the number of casualties on our roads.
A number of check sites were set up across the town last week, where officers gave advice on tyres, lights, and window tints to name a few, as well as checking all vehicle-related documentation was in place. During the day, a total of seventy-two motoring offences were detected, which ranged from speeding, failure to wear seat belts, and using mobile phones whilst driving, as well as vehicles with insecure loads and disqualified drivers.
As part of my ongoing campaign, I am urging local residents who have got concerns to get in touch and use the online reporting tool on the Wiltshire Police website here Report a road traffic incident | Wiltshire Police This will enable the roads policing team to continue to effectively target specific areas of concern here in Swindon as part of their ongoing work.
Finally, my local charity of the week is Wiltshire Air Ambulance, a lifesaving charity providing an emergency service to the people of Wiltshire, including here in south Swindon. Wiltshire Air Ambulance began operating in 1990 and the helicopter and crew have saved countless lives. The charity shared a helicopter with Wiltshire Police for 24 years but began operating as a stand-alone air ambulance in 2015.
The Wiltshire Air Ambulance crew are operational for up to 19 hours a day, every day, and on average they are called to three incidents a day in the helicopter and two critical care cars. As well as providing this essential lifesaving service, Wiltshire Air Ambulance also offer Emergency Awareness Training, teaching lifesaving skills to communities and schools across the county.
It costs £4 million a year to keep the service operational, which equates to around £11,000 a day. To find out more about this wonderful local charity and how you can support them, please visit https://www.wiltshireairambulance.co.uk/
