To those who've filled out the postcards to their councillor and were wondering how that was going, last night we delivered over 700 of the beggars to the Civic offices. 502 from local residents addressed to each councillor; 214 from non-Swindonians addressed to Mike Bawden as council leader.
This is hopefully just the 1st batch: so if you've filled one (or more) out already, well done! If you haven't, get a pile of them from the Trust office or trestle tables outside club shop before home games and get them filled in!
Press release sent out today:
Keep Town In Swindon Press release: Town Fans call on council to "keep your promises"
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Keep Town in Swindon, the campaign organised by STFC fans to back the proposed
redevelopment of the County Ground, yesterday delivered over 700 postcards from
fans and local people to their borough councillors. The postcards call on
councillors to do everything in their power to work with the club on the
redevelopment, a commitment made by councillors in November 2004 when they
unanimously passed a motion pledging to do just that. The postcards also point
out the benefits, financial cultural and sporting, the club brings to the town,
and the very real danger that Swindon could lose its only professional football
club after 125 years if councillors do not grasp the urgency of the situation.
In total there are 716 cards, 502 from local residents to individual councillors
with a further 214 from fans coming from outside the area to watch the club,
addressed to Mike Bawden as council leader. While some may "pooh-pooh" whether
fans from outside the borough should have any say on the issue, Keep Town in
Swindon have pointed out that this just backs their argument that having the club
at the County Ground brings in a significant amount of visitors to the area,
spending money in Swindon that would otherwise be lost to the borough.
This is just the first tranche of these postcards in what is an ongoing campaign
- these 700 postcards were collected at just two recent home games, while many
more have also been sent out or taken away by individual fans. We hope that
councillors will listen to fans and local residents and realise the very real
benefits of having Swindon Town at a redeveloped County Ground before the club is
lost to the town forever - it will be too late then to mourn the loss to the
town's cultural life, civic pride and local traders' profits.
We would also urge all football fans in the town, and local residents who do
realise the very grave loss that could face the town, to write to their
councillors urging them to back the redevelopment proposals - lists of
councillors and sample letters etc can be found on the campaign website at
http://www.keeptowninswindon.org.uk/Facts and figures:
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Keep Town in Swindon is a coalition of fans and local residents, founded by the official Supporters' Club, the Supporters' Trust (TrustSTFC) and the fans behind the "Loud and Proud" campaign, all determined to ensure that Swindon Town Football Club stays in the community that it represents.
Web:
http://www.keeptowninswindon.org.uk/