Derek Benfield is proving to be a great Mayor of Swindon and a generous one to boot. He has dipped into his own pocket and brought out a cheque for £500 to kick off an appeal for a mesothelioma task group to help families who have become unwitting victims
IKEA looks set to be coming to Swindon, putting another feather in the cap of our prosperous town. The company has already chosen Bristol and Birmingham in which to build stores and the management obviously sees Swindon as the third part of its business
Ref. 26214-17SWINDON is bracing itself for a flood of parking tickets after September 1 when the council takes control of enforcing parking regulations and this is one of the wardens who will be issuing them. An army of some 40 wardens will patrol the
Ref. 26193-99IT'S four legs good, two legs better for a vet who has decided to give up treating animals to concentrate on humans. However, Jamie Dunn, 26, plans to spend at least some of his time looking after people's pets and livestock in order to help
COUNCIL tenants are bracing themselves for a decision on how the discovery of money in a forgotten housing revenue account will benefit them. Last month the Evening Advertiser exclusively revealed that Swindon Council had unearthed the money by chance
Ref. 25971-25It is often left in the shadow of the much-hyped Steam museum, but the Swindon and Cricklade Railway has been keeping rail enthusiasts happy for the past 25 years. ANTHONY OSBORNE reports on developments for the future. BIG changes are afoot
THE Churchfields school class of 1983 is having a reunion for the first time since leaving 20 years ago. On September 19 the former classmates, who all started at the secondary school aged 11 in 1978, will meet up at a venue yet to be confirmed. Many
Ref. 26222-31A RABBIT named Smokie escaped shaken, but unharmed from a fire that wrecked a house in Highworth. The animal, kept in a hutch near the house, escaped unscathed, but the family home of Gary and Anne Clarke in Kilda Road did not, with all three
SWEDISH furniture giant Ikea has confirmed interest in building a superstore in Swindon, but has not yet found a suitable site. The Scandinavian company, known to millions as a byword for simple, easy-to-use and inexpensive flatpack furniture, has been
Supermarine RFC have set up a senior 10-a-side tournament for next Sunday (August 24), starting at 10.30 -11.00. Twelve local teams are likely to be invited to the event, with a barbecue and live band providing the entertainment in the evening.
WINS for Marine and Cirencester see the two clubs nestled nicely alongside each other in the top seven of the early Western Division standings. But the pair find themselves in unlikely company at the top end of the table after a weekend of shocks which
SWINDON Supermarine enjoyed the winning start manager Ray Baverstcok craved as an unlikely hero emerged at Hunts Copse. All eyes were on Marine's various summer signings, but it was forgotten wing-back Chris Copp who popped up to score two minutes from
A sponsored walk is planned around Coate Water to raise funds for equipment in the Great Western Hospital's orthopaedic department. Staff at the hospital will be joining former orthopaedic patients on a one-mile walk on Sunday, September 7. The department
In reaction to your leader of August 12 "Give incentive as well as punishment", I would support the idea of cheaper car parking for very short stops. It seems a bit steep to have to pay a pound or so to stop to buy a sandwich! However, reducing car park
YOUR readers may not realise that each day 4,000 children try to ring ChildLine, but tragically we only have the resources to answer around half of them. So when I heard that Iceland stores across the UK had raised an amazing £300,000 for ChildLine over
THANKS to the kindness of the owners and the perseverance of a Mr Harboard at RAF Innsworth, I was recently able to make a visit to the RAF Hospital at Wroughton. I was a student nurse there in the 60s and it was a really lovely place to work. It was
AFTER attending the performance of the Wyvern Theatre's summer Youth Project Fame! we just wanted to write and congratulate everyone involved the project on a fantastic show. After seeing the West End production twice and the UK Tour in Oxford last Christmas
WING Brendon Daniel crossed for a first-half hat-trick as Bath opened their pre-season campaign with a 29-22 victory over the Celtic Warriors at Pontypridd's Sardis Road. Daniel, who joined Bath from Bristol in the summer, completed his treble after the
LEEDS UNITED may yet regret the report on their official website which labels the visit of Swindon Town as a 'relatively straight-forward task'. Andy King's men have been handed a money-spinning trip to Elland Road in the second round of the Carling Cup
WESTLECOT missed out on being crowned the top outdoor club in England as they were beaten 3-2 at Worthing by Felixstowe and Suffolk in the final of the Top Club competition.
A MAN who fought a long hard campaign from Burnley in Lancashire to restore the name Swindon to the borough he still regards as home has celebrated his diamond wedding. Ex-railwayman Eric Beint, 81, who is married to Joan, 79, moved north in 1956 because
A FATHER has been jailed for 18 months for accessing 16,000 "depraved" pictures of children on the internet. Geoffrey Bramford, 33, of Cricklade Road, Swindon, claimed he had downloaded child pornography so he could destroy it using a computer virus.
Ref. 26214-17SWINDON is bracing itself for a flood of parking tickets after September 1 when the council takes control of enforcing parking regulations and this is one of the wardens who will be issuing them. An army of some 40 wardens will patrol the
TRAX Gym and New College are the early pace-setters in Junior Division Two, both securing comfortable wins at the weekend. Both sides are yet to drop points, winning their first three games of the campaign. Trax hit five goals past a Westside Reserves
HIGHWORTH boss John Fisher saw his side slump to a shock 1-0 opening day defeat at Bicester and duly dubbed the performance 'diabolical'. A late Jim Hamilton goal left Fisher fuming as Highworth's habit of struggling against the league's lesser lights
SWINDON Town midfielder Keith O'Halloran continued his quest for fitness by turning out for Cirencester Town on Saturday and the Irishman duly helped the Centurians to a solid 1-0 win at Atherstone United. The 28-year-old enjoyed his first fully competitive
THE rumours about Tommy Saunders were not true he's not switching to a 3-5-2 formation just yet. The tried and tested away-day 4-5-1 was once again deployed at Nuneaton Borough on Saturday, and as usual it reaped dividends as Chippenham came from behind
Ref. 26202-44THIS week Ron Tubb is thinking, as he does every year before the anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, about men who gave their all for this country, but whose sacrifice rarely gets more than a passing mention. They, like Ron, served
Ref. 26217-74THOUSANDS turned out to visit the traditional Wanborough Show on Saturday. The tranquillity of the village was broken only by the sound of sheep dog trials, children clambering up the greasy pole and adults inspecting the vast array of jams
OPINION is divided over whether proposed changes to the process of applying to university will be good news for Swindon students. Education Secretary Charles Clarke is looking at moves that would delay students applying to university until after they
Ref. 26208-01TWO DIY workers swapped wallpaper paste for hot wax in a bid to raise cash for charity. The staff from Homebase at the Orbital Retail Park, North Swindon, agreed to have their legs waxed in front of customers in aid of the store's newly-adopted
A flower festival on the theme of events portrayed in the bible will be held at St Leonard's Church at Blunsdon over the weekend of September 6 and 7, to raise cash for church funds. The church will be open from 10am until 6pm on the Saturday and from
Ref. 19331-75WARDENS will remain on Swindon's streets for an extra year after the council agreed to pump in extra funding. The street wardens scheme, based in Parks and Walcot, has been a success with residents since it started in July last year. But
COUN Bawden's comments regarding the financing of the street warden scheme after the start-up funding from Central Government expires are very revealing of the Tory council's priorities in this area. Of course, there are always competing demands when
I ONCE again read that G Scott is decrying Steam. He states most of us, would not lift our heads to watch a kettle steam past even if standing on the trackside. He also suggests changing the name of the Museum. Perhaps he could explain. Would he suggest
THE letter in the Evening Advertiser on August 13 by John Short is of great concern as he has little understanding of the complex issue of sustainable management that is needed at Barbury Castle. This is the most important ancient site in Swindon. Concerning
