Last week the Swindon Advertiser covered a public meeting where an estimated 150 Old Town residents attended an open meeting to discuss how to fight Swindon’s Conservative Councillors against their decision to propose a school on the Croft site and the granting of planning permission for the school to be sited at Croft.

I  have no doubt that the Conservatives will see those who attended this meeting as merely nimbys and self-interested. After speaking to some of those residents who attended this meeting, I hold a very different view and believe the large turnout highlights a recurring theme of the actions and decisions Swindon’s Conservative administration has taken.

• We saw it with the way this Conservative administration dismissed residents’ concerns over the administration’s Wi-Fi decision
• We saw it with the Whalebridge changes where the Conservative administration decided to make a massive change to the town’s road network without consulting one member of the public or ward councillor
• And we saw it with the allocation of the Haydon 3 S106 money, where Haydon Wick and Abbey Meads’ residents were bypassed in order for the Conservative administration to divert 83% of the £15m pot to other areas of Swindon

Swindon’s Conservative administration is neither listening to, nor working with the people of our town.  While providing warm words about engaging with local communities and residents, the Tories’ actions speak louder than their words and over the last 9 years of them being in administration, their actions have irreversibly alienated many of Swindon’s communities and residents.

The local Labour Party have recognised this and we believe we have a package of policies that will begin to recover local communities’ and residents’ trust in Swindon Borough Council, after nearly a decade of neglect. These policies would include:

•  Seeking to devolve more powers and services down to a lower tier of local government- parish and community councils.
• And we would get the Council to agree a set of rights that each resident in this town will have when interacting with their council. These rights should be proposed by an independent local resident after they hold an Independent Review where they consult with local residents about what they want from their council.

Should Labour take control of Swindon Council and I become Leader of the Council, gone will be the days where members of the public are targets of scorn from senior Conservative Councillors; gone will be the days where there are proposals to restrict the powers of parish councils and gone will be the days where decisions that affect all residents of the borough are nodded through without any public consultation.

The Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant, has called for a halt to the Croft Development until local residents’ concerns about the process of the school being granted have been heard.

The Labour Group Leader has also written to the Leader of the Council, Councillor Rod Bluh, requesting that he join him in meeting leaders of the Croft Community who have expressed their concerns about the proposed new Old Town School.

I am calling for a temporary halt to the development of the Croft School, based on the evidence the Croft residents have provided to me. The reason I am doing this is because the Croft residents have shown me evidence that undermines the robustness of the information that has been provided to justify the school being on the Croft site.

As well as this, I think local residents’ have been isolated from the Croft School process because they were legitimately concerned about a new school being on that site and that has meant the Croft community now feel completely alienated from Swindon Borough Council. This cannot be right and undermines one of the Council’s strategic aims- to better engage with its local communities.

If I have been given the correct information then reconsideration of the Croft School and a temporary halt to development is the minimum that is required. Following this I think the Leader of the Council and I need to meet with the leaders of the Croft community to listen and review their case.

Below is a letter to Councillor Bluh to ask him to join me in doing this. Anything other than him doing this will be a kick in the teeth for the Croft and wider Old Town community.

Cllr Jim Grant, Swindon Labour Group Leader

Labour Leader’s Letter to the Leader of the Swindon Council

 Dear Rod

I write to you as a matter of serious urgency regarding the proposed new primary school at Croft. Whilst we are political opponents I believe we have some things in common and this includes wanting good trusting relationships with Swindon’s communities.  Recently there has been a break down in trust with the Croft Community over theCroftSchoolproposal.

Originally I thought this was about the proposed school at Croft and the subsequent planning decision, however it is much deeper than that and I believe it undermines the ‘Stronger Together’ principles.

I recently met some of the Croft Community and the information they relayed causes me great concern. They feel an injustice has been done on the back of what they feel is incorrect and incomplete information that has been supplied to council members to make decisions.  Based on what they have told me it may contribute to an unsafe decision and I would be happy to talk to you about this in person.

Since the Planning Committee Meeting they have also been told that information presented to the committee can’t be challenged. In other words, there is no recourse for local residents’ on planning decisions. I am not comfortable with this and the residents have judged the Council by its acts and to them the Council has used all the resources at its disposal to ensure the building of a school at Croft, without thinking about alternative arrangements.

That is why I am callin g on you to temporarily halt the building of the proposed primary school at Croft. During this time I propose that me and you, as the town’s main political group leaders, meet with the leaders of the Croft community and review their case. This should not be a long process as all the information regarding this is in the public domain and this could have significant implications in signalling toSwindon’s communities that their council will hear them out.

I look forward to a prompt response from you.

Yours Sincerely,

Cllr Jim Grant

Swindon Labour Group Leader

Swindon Borough Council has been accused by Swindon’s Labour Group Leader of letting down the town’s young children after proposing more than £150,000 worth of cuts to Swindon’s children’s centres. These cuts were part of the administration’s budget proposals back in November and will be on top of the £50K cut from Swindon’s Sure Start this year.

The Conservative administration’s proposals include making cuts of more than £40,000 to the Robert Le Kyng and the Penhill/Pinehurst Children’s Centres and cuts of more than £8.500 to Children’s centres in places like Freshbrook, Dorcan, Stratton and Drove Road.

These Tories proposed cuts to Swindon’s children centres will be a huge worry to families in places like Freshbrook, Dorcan, Eastcott and Penhill, whose children’s centres are receiving cuts.

SureStart is a universal service for our town’s young families and any cuts to this service are depriving families of this essential support they deserve.

Unlike Labour, who have created and defended the many excellent children’s centres across our town, the Tories do not prioritise young people.

As Labour councillors and representatives of this town, we will stand up for our children and fight this lack of investment in their future. It is a shame that the Tories both locally and nationally are not doing the same.

Tories Proposed Sure Start Cuts in 2012/13

The Swindon Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant, promises to undertake a school place review should Labour take control of the Council in 2012. This is part of Labour’s aspiration to provide good local schools for all of Swindon’s children, and so improve on the current unsatisfactory system.

At next year’s local elections in Swindon, one of Labour’s central pledges will be to undertake a thorough review of school places policy throughout Swindon.

Labour believes that Swindon Borough Council needs a clear policy on school places that meets the desires of local families to send their children to a good local school. At present, we are seeing in places like North Swindon that schools are so oversubscribed that children living close to their local school are not guaranteed a place. In my own ward I have seen children of primary school age having to travel from Rodbourne to Toothill, despite Even Swindon Primary being on their doorstep.

It is an essential part of the Council’s role in office to ensure that children living near a local school should be able to be a pupil of that school. Currently, the Tory-led council seem unable to provide this critical service.

I know that I speak for the children and parents of Swindon pupils when I call for a clear and comprehensive review of the school places system.  If Labour take control of the council, we will undertake such a review and follow expert recommendations to ensure the best provision of education for the children if our town.

Photo courtesy of MadeForMums

Swindon’s Labour Party will be fighting next year’s local election campaign with a promise to “turn the lights back on in Swindon”, by reversing the Conservative administration’s decision in July to switch off more than 400 streetlights in Swindon.  The Swindon Labour Group Leader explains why the Labour Party have taken this decision.

This week I publicly stated that one of Labour’s campaign pledges for next year’s elections will be to reverse the Tories’ streetlights switch off and to turn the lights back on in Swindon.

Despite only making a £20,000 dent in the administration’s budget blackhole this year, the Tories have taken away one of the few things that all Council-tax payers’ deserve and expect from their council- providing street and road lighting. I hope Labour’s pledge will be a timely reassurance to pedestrians, cyclists and drivers in the town who have seen many of their streets and roads darkened as a result of the Tory administration’s decision.

I think what the administration has forgotten when deciding to switch off 400 of Swindon’s streetlights, is that local residents see streetlights as an essential amenity that they pay for through their council-taxes.

What makes this decision even more galling for residents is that while they have to deal with unlit streets, 140 other streetlights in unopened roads around the town have been left on for 3 months, costing the Council more than a thousand pounds. It is wholly unjust for the administration to tell residents they are making savings through switching their streetlights off and then leave streetlights on for 3 months on unopened roads.

Labour would find the money to switch back on the streetlights through cutting money from non-essential areas of Council expenditure. For example the Council is still spending £35K on Conference expenses and £50K on Council hospitality. Significantly cutting either of these budgets would be enough to switch the streetlights back on.

Areas most affected by streetlight cuts:

• West Swindon- 260 streetlights switched off
• Dorcan Way/ Marlborough Road/ Highworth Road- 70 streetlights switched off

This Wednesday the Swindon Labour Party is holding a public meeting, starting at 7pm at the Haydon Wick Parish Council Offices.

I would like to invite all North Swindon residents to attend this meeting and to share their views on the issues that matter to them.

I have established this meeting along with other Labour Councillors, to talk to the people of North Swindon and to hear their local concerns and see whether we can address any of these local concerns either now or should Labour take control of the Council in the future.

We are particularly interested in the local views on the issue of Section 106 (developers) money, which was generated from the development of the Northern Sector housing.

Some of the questions which arise out of the Section 106 issue include:

• Whether enough money was spent in the local area?

• Is the local infrastructure good enough in North Swindon to be able to redirect money generated in that area to the rest of the town?

• And how we can change the system, if necessary?

Labour wants to hear local residents’ views on these questions as well as any other local issues that have arisen so that we can develop policies which are based on the views of local people.

Councillor Jim Grant

Swindon Labour Group Leader

The Labour Group Leader reacts to the news that Swindon Borough Council has budgeted to spend £11.5m to pay-off the interest payments on its debts in the 2012/13 financial year. This is an increase of £1.5m from the 2011/12 Council budget.

The Council’s existing debt is £80m, however it is expected that this will increase in the 2012/13 financial year, with the Council already committing to borrowing £15m on the Union Square development.

When the Conservative Group took overall control of Swindon Borough Council from Labour in 2004, the Council had a surplus of £6.6m.

While Swindon Borough Council has a debt of £80m, Southampton City Council has a debt of £33m and Bath & North-East Somerset Council has a debt of only £13.9m

I believe it is utterly disgraceful that this Tory administration has racked up debts of £80m after inheriting balanced books from Labour. This has resulted in the Council having to pay £11.5m in interest payments next year. This money could have been given back to Swindon’s Council taxpayers or could have been used to virtually avoid making cuts at all next year.

Under Labour Swindon Council had a surplus of £6.6m
Under the Conservatives Swindon Council now has a debt of £80m
resulting in interest payments of £11.5m, next year

This administration is completely out of control and it is Council-tax payers who are paying the price, paying £11.5m next year just servicing the interest payments on the Council’s debt. And what concerns me more is that with the commitment this administration has made to borrow £15m to build a car park at Union Square, the interest payments Swindon’s Council-tax payers are paying now looks set to only increase in future years.

At the next Full Council Meeting the Labour Group will be calling on the Conservative administration to explain how they got the Council in to this mess and how they plan to get the Council out of it. My worry is that they have no such plan and are content in allowing Council-taxpayers to pay off their massive debts.

Only a new and reforming Labour administration will be able to bring a culture of responsibility back to managing the Council’s finances. And we would do this firstly by establishing a credible plan on how the Council will reduce its £80m debt and help stop the current injustice that Council-taxpayers are having to pay for the Tories profligate spending.

Councillor Jim Grant
Swindon Labour Group Leader

I have been informed by elderly tenants living within Council-managed Elderly Person Group Dwellings (EPGDs) that the Council have been telling them that they may lose their wardens if they do not vote Yes to Stock Transfer.

The fact that this Tory administration is telling residents of Elderly Persons Group Dwellings (EPDGs) that unless they vote Yes to Stock Transfer they could lose their warden service is, to say the least, a disturbing turn of events in the campaign.

That the Tories are even contemplating the removal of wardens from EPGDs is bad enough but to use the threat of their loss against tenants as a campaign tactic is utterly despicable. Many of these vulnerable residents rely on their wardens for many aspects of their every day lives. The threat of withdrawing the wardens is likely to distress, upset and cause fear among the most elderly and vulnerable people living in Swindon. So much for caring, compassionate conservatism!

In my opinion, it would be absolutely disgraceful if the wardens are removed. Moreover, because the council has a duty of care for the EPGD residents and any new housing association only has a duty to provide housing; it is far more likely that tenants would lose the warden service under a Housing Association than were the stock to remain under council control. This is the experience in other local authorities.

Labour are committed to retaining the warden service and I give a commitment to Council EPGD residents that, under a Labour controlled authority, all wardens would remain in service.

The people of Swindon complain that all political parties are the same but they are not. Labour is committed to protecting the elderly and vulnerable of this town and our commitment to retain the wardens service proves this. Labour has long argued that the Conservatives do not care about the elderly and vulnerable and the use of this fear campaign in this matter shows that the Tories do not care.

Cllr Jim Grant
Swindon Labour Group Leader

The Swindon Labour Party is instigating a “Labour Listens” campaign in which we will hold public meetings around the town, particularly in places which are currently without Labour councillors. The purpose of these meetings will be to allow residents to share their views with the local Labour Party, so that we can attempt to resolve any concerns they might have.

The overall aim of these meetings is to ensure that as a local Labour Party, we are in tune with the people we represent or seek to represent. The Swindon Labour Party’s contact with, and understanding of our residents should always be our first concern. This will also help raise the profile of the local Labour Party in areas we have previously not had much contact with.

I have asked all Swindon Labour Party members, whether they are current councillors, prospective councillors or other local activists, to be able to be involved in this work. It will benefit Labour as a whole in Swindon to help raise our profile; however the main aim of these events will be to ensure that the local Labour Party is in tune with local peoples’ views on how their town should be run.

The first meeting will cover Haydon Wick & Priory Vale wards on the 16th of November. I hope to arrange other such meetings in the run up to the May elections.

Councillor Jim Grant

Swindon Labour Group Leader

At the end of this week the Leader of the Swindon Labour Group called on Swindon Council’s Leader and Deputy Leader to resign over their involvement in the Wi-Fi project.  In this exclusive blog the Swindon Labour Group Leader explains why he took this decision.

On Friday’s BBC Radio Swindon “Drive Time” programme I called on both Swindon Borough Council’s Leader and Deputy Leader to resign from their Cabinet positions due to their involvement over Wi-Fi.

Although there have been bitter disputes with the Leader of the Council over his highly interpretive use of Swindon Borough Council’s written constitution to get the £400,000 loan to Digital City made without informing Councillors or Council-taxpayers’, there are ultimately three reasons why Swindon Council’s leader and deputy leader should resign from their senior positions within the Council.

Firstly, I believe both Councillors Bluh and Perkins are culpable because they have both failed to recover even a penny of the £400,000 loan to Digital City, despite the company being contracted to pay back all of the money to the Council by October this year.

Secondly, I have called for this because both Councillors Bluh and Perkins have consistently failed to explain to Swindon taxpayers where their £400,000 has gone. This destroys all credibility the council has to say to taxpayers about how their council is being open and transparent in using their money.

And thirdly, I have called for this because the council’s reputation is being harmed at a national level, with the wi-fi failure being covered in the national press, including the Guardian newspaper.

The Leader of Swindon Council ultimately has to take the rap for this as it was his unilateral decision to agree to loan Digital City £400,000 of Council-taxpayers’ money, with Council members and even most Cabinet members not even being informed of the project.

However, the Deputy Leader of the Council does have to take much of the responsibility for Digital City not paying back any of the £400K Council-taxpayer loan since it is he is acting on behalf of the Council as a Director of Digital City.

Now I understand that some will suggest my resignation calls are politically motivated and that if Swindon council-taxpayers’ want Councillors Bluh and Perkins out they can exercise their right to vote them out. However this is beyond political parties. This is about two men who have taken actions unilaterally in the name, and on behalf of, the Council which have lost £400,000 of Council-taxpayers’ money.

And because it is these two councillors, and only these two councillors, who have made such mistakes, I believe it is them who have to go.

Councillor Jim Grant
Leader of the Labour Group