3rd August 2026
You'd be right in thinking it's no longer July. This newsletter was intended for then but missed the deadline because of a heavy workload and personal issues. Anyway, let's cast our minds back...
Plastic Free Swindon was 8 years old as of the 1st July, the start of Plastic Free July. Happy Birthday to us! Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this organisation and campaign over the years. As an entirely voluntary campaign, I think we do amazing work.
It's been a busy few months as we work through collaborations and sub-campaigns to make change. Here are highlights of this newsletter:
- Radnor Street / William Street community clean up project.
- Welcome new members of our Steering Committee.
- Nature's Pharmacy.
- Water fountains in South Swindon parks.
- Birds and Bees show interviews of note.
- Campaign for the Nature and National Security Bill.
- Concerns about the new council administration.
- Alternative hardware and software for phones and tablets..
- Great team for Plastic Free Swindon stalls!
Our main project over the last few months has been cleaning up the appalling fly-tipping and litter in an alleyway which runs at the back of houses on Radnor Street and William Street in SN1. This alleyway has been cleared many times over the years but has always returned to an abhorrent mess.
So time to try something different. We felt that community involvement was essential to make and consolidate change, so we tailored a community organising approach which has been used successfully by a group led by Jeremy Lune for the Eastcott Community Litter Pick. The results have been fantastic!! What a brilliant community effort!!
Toni Osborne and Karen Leggett, who led this project, discussed it for the Birds and Bees show on Swindon 105.5:
Thanks to everyone involved in this project!! In addition to the thanks given in Karen and Toni's interview, thanks to Diana Toogood and Titch's art group at the Hub for the brilliant signs they made for Keep Swindon Tidy, some of which have now been put up in the alleyway as encouragement to treat the environment with better care / a deterrent to littering and fly-tipping!
It's important for the Plastic Free Communities campaign to have at least one councillor for the Steering Committee. Former councillor, Liam Grother, was on the Steering Committee but sadly wasn't re-elected. Thanks to Liam for working with us.
A key focus then has been to find another councillor to be on the committee.
We're delighted to welcome Councillor Suresh Gattapur of the Conservative Party to our organisation. We've worked many times with Suresh in West Swindon. He is a hard working, dedicated councillor who demonstrates his care for the environment through action. Welcome!
A warm welcome also to Councillor Chris Watts, former Labour Party Councillor for the Environment and Transport. He has a wealth of experience with local waste issues and has supported Plastic Free Swindon / Keep Swindon Tidy in various ways such as with the recent Radnor / William Street project.
We are also delighted to welcome Rosie Leather, a Green Party representative in South Swindon and former Parish Councillor. She has been involved in many local projects and has supported Plastic Free Swindon in various ways. Her specialism is local food, a vital aspect in reducing plastic use / production, which is a key focus for Plastic Free Swindon.
The Steering Committee now has 6 dedicated people with connections to business, local government and communities to help us move this campaign forwards. It seems a good compliment. Watch this space...
We have been encouraged to believe that synthetic chemical medications are key to good health. Yet synthetic chemical medicines come with myriad side effects (check out the FDA's website for extensive information on this). They are often packaged in plastic. Many of them contain petrochemicals / derivatives of oil!
Synthetic fertilisers are correlated with diseases (eg Alzeimer's, Parkinson's, auto-immune, cancers...). The synthetic chemicals industry make enormous profits. They are part of a system of gross economic inequality which is poisoning us, contributing to mass extinction and climate change. How is any of that healthy?
Nature's Pharmacy is a public garden full of organic herbs and flowers which have various medicinal qualities. It is free for the local community to share. The intention of the project is to raise awareness of the harms of synthetic chemicals and encourage natural health. Nature provides!
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food
- Hippocrates, Greek philosopher & physician - c.400 BC
South Swindon Parish Council recently installed water fountains to the 3 main parks it manages: GWR, Old Town Gardens and Queen's Park. Brilliant news for reuse over single-use in Swindon!
We created a webpage on water fountains which includes a Birds and Bees show interview with Councillor Linda Kasmaty who played a key role in the installation of South Swindon's new fountains.
We contacted all other parish councils inviting them to follow suit. A few expressed interest. I attended a St. Andrew's Parish Council meeting to discuss the idea. They voted to look into its viability. Haydon Wick Parish Council are also making further enquiries.
With borough councillors / political party members now on our Steering Committee, we will also encourage the borough council to follow suit.
Want to get more water fountains in Swindon? Contact your local parish and borough councillors. There is power in the union, people!
- Sue Lee and Karen Leggett of Junk and Disorderly.
- Toni Osborne and Karen Leggett of Keep Swindon Tidy re Radnor / William Street alleyway project.
- Laura Jayne working on the Plastic Free Swindon stall at the Christ Church Eco Fair.
- Councillor Linda Kasmaty on South Swindon's new water fountains.
- Ruth Sumner and Ben Bell on ways to avoid microplastics.
The Birds and Bees show airs every Friday from 2-3pm on Swindon 105.5 and is available on catch up.
This bill is much-needed broad legislation to protect the environment and us. It covers aspects of plastic pollution.
- North Swindon MP Will Stone supports the bill.
- South Swindon MP Heidi Alexander doesn't support the bill.
- East Wiltshire MP Danny Kruger doesn't support the bill.
If you are a constituent of either South Swindon or East Wiltshire, we are asking that you contact your MP through an easy action on the Zero Hour website. Find out more and take action here.
Recently the SOS campaign expressed concerns regarding the new administration of the borough council because they haven't received a response from them for many months regarding the future of the much-treasured Oasis leisure centre.
Many years back, not longer after the launch of Keep Swindon Tidy, we spent considerable time cleaning the Oasis in lieu of its 'caretakers', Seven Capital. At the time, we waited 4 months for a response from the borough council, which included several complaints, many of whom now lead the new administration. So we share the SOS campaign's concerns. Thankfully the former council administration were much more receptive, which helped Keep Swindon Tidy and Help Me IT especially.
Many local environmental campaigners were in the public gallery for the Greener Swindon committee. We laughed at the end because it looked like a Swindon Climate Action Network meeting of past and present members. This was 1 of 3 committees set up by the former administration to help inform and drive policy and actions for the benefit of the town. The committee was shut down by the new administration much to the distress of other parties, local political and environmental campaigners, and members of the public. We urge you to sign and share the petition to save it.
Due to the concerns outlined and because of a lack of response from the new administration to related queries, I wrote to the Swindon Advertiser along with the SOS campaign. Sadly, as has been consistent over the years for Plastic Free Swindon, I was taken out of context and so complained. Essentially I expressed the concerns outlined here about the new SBC administration. An omission by the Adver seemed to imply Labour Party bias which misconstrued my letter and the case. I went on to critique neo-liberal economics. That was omitted in its entirety.
Councils of whatever colour do not have enough money to function because of an unnecessary austerity agenda. Austerity is a key tenet of neo-liberalism, an ideology intended to serve wealthy private interests, in part by destroying public representation. Without challenging this gross injustice, it's likely that councils will continue facing the same challenges in representing the public, should they genuinely care to do so. This is the elephant in the room. Given the national government's potential to lift austerity measures through economic equality measures, I suggested that local MPs were contacted for comment.
To all users of software and 'services' from Google (and other Big Tech corporations), please consider:
- Google are an arm of the US government.
- They play a key role in war, in genocide.
- They broke their promise to not use AI for weapons.
- Their software model is part of a system of mass surveillance which contravenes the human right to privacy, threatening both personal and collective security, undermining democracy, and enabling tyranny.
- Big Tech is connected with the far right, with Jeffrey Epstein.
- Google are attempting to further dominate Android devices by controlling software development and locking out other operating systems. See Keep Android Open for more details and to sign a petition.
- Their software model (proprietary, not free / libre) drives e-waste and other environmental harms.
- Their domination hinders open communication, which then hinders our ability to overcome oppression / tyranny and to deal with the ecological crisis.
Is convenience worth this danger and harm? There are better options.
Thankfully there are liberating alternatives which can protect and empower both us and the environment. We've previously discussed computer options, so let's focus this time on phones and tablets.
Alternative hardware options:
- Fairphone.
- Callback (Commodore phone).
- Jolla.
- Braxphone.
- SHIFTphone.
- UP phone.
- Motorola (new partnership with GrapheneOS).
Alternative operating systems:
It's appreciated that tech issues aren't always easy to understand. For helpful advice / support, contact and / or visit Help Me IT.
Thanks to Steven Bell for helping compile this list of alternatives.
Last but certainly not least... let's end on a positive.
We have gotten together a great team for stalls which includes Ruth Sumner, Dani King, Laura Jayne, Jody Higgins, Ben Bell... and not forgetting Ethel, the Plastic Free Swindon mascot! We were recently at Christ Church's Eco Fair and Pinehurst Fun Day.
We put on stalls and presentations which can be tailored to groups / events. If you would like us to attend an event, please get in touch.
That's it for this newsletter. A share would be much appreciated.
Thank you to everyone who supports and contributes to this organisation / campaign!