TWO GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES MISSED BY SWINDON COUNCIL: LIVE steam had been included in the original plans for the town's flagship railway museum, but was dropped because it was feared it would cost too much.

The task group charged with reducing Steam museum's £500,000 a year deficit will tell civic chiefs at the decision-making cabinet committee tomorrow that live steam is the key to pulling in more visitors to the loss-making attraction.

But the Evening Advertiser can reveal that in the early 1990s, plans for the museum included a running line around the Churchward site.

That would have extended out to Rodbourne Road in a loop. Railtrack (now Network Rail) carried out a feasibility study and the cost was put at around £200,000

By 1998, and with costs escalating, a savings exercise was undertaken and live steam was dropped from the plans.

Today, the museum is losing around £12,000 a week and visitor figures are far below those predicted before the museum opened. The attraction has even stopped recruiting staff.

Coun John Taylor (Lab, Central), chairman of the Steam task group, which was set up to explore ways the museum could attract more visitors and reduce its running costs, said: "This revelation came as a significant surprise to the Steam task group back in 1998 a conscious decision was made to remove the running line from plans and now the public are clamouring for live steam at the museum it's the biggest irony.

"The deficit is running at more than £500,000 a year and it's going to take a long time to recover that amount - we'd like to get it back to nearer £200,000, but it will not happen overnight."

In 1994, the first costing of the museum was put at £3,117,000, by 1995 it had risen to £4.5 million and by 1996 it has escalated further to £11 million. The final cost of the museum, which opened in June 2000, was £13 million.

Tomorrow night Coun Taylor will report the task group's findings to Swindon Council's decision-making cabinet where he will call on fellow councillors to back plans to introduce live steam.

Last month, the editor of respected magazine Heritage Railway, Robin Jones, told the Advertiser the name of the museum was very misleading because it did not involve any live steam. And he said the only way to attract interest in the attraction was to introduce a narrow gauge working railway.

Tim Bryan, acting general manger of Steam, said: "Back at the start we looked at the idea of including working steam and Railtrack undertook a feasibility study, but it didn't go any further than that. I would have thought the working railway would have cost somewhere around £200,000.

"Live steam is something that people have talked about right from the start and is the one thing that would certainly bring the museum to life. It is certainly what visitors want."

A borough task force set up to rid us of graffiti manages to come up with ZERO solutions after one year.

THE chairman of a task group set up nearly a year ago by Swindon Council to rid the borough of graffiti today admitted it had failed to produce any radical ideas.

Justin Tomlinson (Con, Abbey Meads), chairman of the graffiti task group said he was frustrated the think tank had failed to produce any plan to tackle the rise in what has become known as 'tagging'.

The task group - a five-member panel set up last September - had been exploring new measures including getting those responsible for graffiti to clean it up, encouraging shopkeepers to refuse the sale of spray paint and marker pens to under-16s, issuing community groups with free clean-up kits and encouraging the use of anti-graffiti materials in the construction of new public buildings.

A graffiti wall installed in Manning-ton last year to encourage artists to spray in a designated area but was pulled down by the council after it was vandalised three times and failed to discourage tagging.

Coun Tomlinson will present a report to the council's decision-making cabinet committee tomorrow explaining what the task group has achieved.

He said: "In an ideal world we would scrub all the graffiti off all walls, but trying to stop shopkeepers selling aerosols and marker pens was unworkable and a lot of art students would have kicked up a stink.

"We could not issue clean-up kits to residents because there was a problem with chemicals, but we support moves to create tougher punishments for those responsible.

"What we want is not what the council can do. Personally I think we should make those responsible scrub it off the walls," said Coun Tomlinson. "Many residents are frustrated just like us councillors because there doesn't seem to be any quick fix.

"The task group has not been able to wave the magic wand and because of that it's been extremely frustrating, but ultimately we need more police officers on the beat to tackle crime.

"It was discovered that it would cost more than £1 million to clean up all the graffiti in West Swindon alone."

Task groups such as the one for graffiti are set up on an ad-hoc basis to look into specific areas of council policy more closely. They have no real power, but recommend their findings to the council's cabinet.

Chris Shepherd (Lib Dem, Freshbrook and Grange Park) who attended some of the meetings, said: "In September last year the Liberal Democrats pressed the council to work harder to clean up graffiti. Nearly a year later the council produces its report, which doesn't go as far as we had wished."

Cleaning up graffiti currently costs taxpayers £47,000 a year. High-powered water jet sprays mixed with solvent are used to remove the paint from walls, signs and doorways across the borough.

Young offenders have already been out in Parks and Walcot using a special machine to scrub graffiti off walls in a partnership between the Street Wardens, Swindon Council and the probation service.

Yesterday residents in Freshbrook - one of the worst areas in Swindon for graffiti tagging - said they wanted to see those responsible clean their mess up.

Freshbrook resident and Church-fields School teacher, Maria Woodhall, 33, said: "I don't think graffiti will ever be properly tackled, but it makes the place look rough and when it's sprayed all over phone boxes and walls it looks disgusting.

"I think those responsible should be made to do community service where they scrub it off, because that's the only way it'll stop them."

Retired Tommy Brewis, of Cottington Close in Freshbrook, said: "Graffiti is absolutely disgusting and although the council has cleaned it up around here it reappears as soon as it is scrubbed off. It's not art and what I'd like to see is the people responsible clean it up."

It is current council policy to remove abusive, racist or obscene graffiti within one day of its appearance.

Insp Mark Garrett of Swindon police said: "The police appreciate that graffiti affects people's quality of life and we would encourage anyone with information on those responsible to come forward with information. Graffiti is something we take seriously."