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

The Swindon Labour Group Leader reacts to the news that Swindon Borough Council has failed to deliver a Waste 2 Energy plant at Waterside.

After nearly two years of talking and preparing for a mobile Waste 2 Energy plant at Waterside Park, which was meant to be the first of a chain of similar plants around the town, the Tory administration admitted last week that this idea has failed to materialise.

The Waste 2 Energy plant was a key plank of the Council’s waste and environmental platform. It was meant to help the Council avoid landfill taxes of nearly £20 million over the next 10 years and was an integral part of the Council’s ambition to create a District Heating system in the town. Labour had been working with the Conservative administration to bring this plant to Waterside Park and had even managed to get buy-in from nearby residents of Waterside on the idea.

However all the plans and work that had been done that centred on this mobile Waste 2 Energy plant being at Waterside was made on the assumption that this technology was viable and to find out after two years of planning that it isn’t is a massive failure on the part of Swindon’s Tory administration.

So what should the Council do next? I am not in favour of an incinerator being built in the town. However there may be other waste plants outside of the town and I believe the council should explore if we can use any other forms of Waste 2 Energy plant at Waterside Park.

Another piece of news last week which was disappointing to hear was that the proposed developers of the Old Swindon College site have withdrawn any form of a timeline to start the proposed development- work on the former college site had meant to commence in the first quarter of 2011.

This is just another example of a trend of failure within Swindon Borough Council as a result of this Tory administration.  Grand dreams of Swindon Borough Council being a leading council with projects like Wi-Fi, Town Centre Regeneration and unique waste 2 energy plants are now turning in to nightmares with Swindon falling behind other areas in regenerating our high street and on diverting residential waste away from landfill sites.

I want to lead a Council more attuned to what people want, which is a council delivering realistic projects, not talking up unrealistic projects that are likely to fail.

Council Jim Grant

Leader of the Labour Group

Earlier this month the Kings Fund published a report (available here) on Social Enterprises in the state-funded health and Social Care sector. The Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant, believes the recommendations from the report need to be taken seriously by Swindon Borough Council.

The report published by the Kings Fund on Social Enterprises in the state-funded health and social care sector could not be timelier for Swindon Borough Council. With Swindon’s adult social care social enterprise set to be fully functional by October this year this report gives the Council an opportunity to reflect on whether its social enterprise is as good as it can be.

This report was based on conversations the Kings Fund took with leaders of health and social care social enterprises across England and its three main recommendations are:

• Calls for longer-term contracts public contracts for Social Enterprises in order to provide “effective and sustainable” business models for social enterprises
• Ensuring that the leaders of the social enterprise have the necessary business competencies to manage the risks
• And ensuring that external stakeholders are engaged in the decision-making of the organisation, as well as staff

Reading through the report, I see much that Swindon Borough Council’s Social Enterprise can learn from it, especially the report’s main recommendations. Now is the time to review whether the Social Enterprise meets all the recommendations of the report. Failure to do this before the Social Enterprise becomes fully operational would be a disservice to the organisation’s staff and service users.

Ensuring that staff are not engaged in the decision-making of the organisation at the expense of the service users On another issue I read with great interest the Federation of Small Businesses’ assessment that Swindon is failing to retain its top young talent within the town. The FSB have said something that I think we all knew however has never really hit home.

The solutions for the Council to retain our top young talent are not simple and cannot be solved in the short-term. However if the Council fails to address this then it could have significant implications to Swindon’s long-term sustainability and I welcome the debate the Swindon FSB have started.

Councillor Jim Grant

Swindon Labour Group Leader

Last week, Swindon received very good news that two new car prototypes will be built at Honda’s South Marston plant over the next 12 month, preserving 3,000 jobs for working people in the town and another 7000 jobs from local companies who rely on business with Honda.

Your local Labour Group is very proud that we brought Honda to Swindon back in the 1980’s and since the car manufacturer arrived in the town they have repeatedly paid Swindon back for welcoming their company in to our town. Whether it be the company’s repeated expansions providing more and more jobs for local working people, or the car manufacturer’s investment of money and expertise in Swindon’s local communities like their sponsoring of the Pinehurst Academy, Swindon should feel lucky that we have Honda in our town.

What makes Honda’s relationship with Swindon extra special is that over recent years the South Marston car plant has struggled to compete against other Honda car plants around the world (all Honda car plants have to compete against one another to manufacture the different prototypes of Honda car). The reason for this is that Swindon’s Honda plant spends more on staffing costs and because other Honda plants around the world are much further down the line in meeting their energy needs through renewable energy sources.

This brings me to the Honda’s wind turbine application going before the Planning Committee this month. I absolutely accept that the Planning Committee have to judge the Honda Wind Turbine planning application by its merits, however it is of the view of Swindon Borough Council’s planners, who have to be objective, that this planning application meets national planning guidance.

So my point is that if Swindon Borough Council’s Planning Committee does find that the facts of the application contravene national planning guidance then this is something I could accept. However it would be a terrible shame for Swindon, not to mention a disservice to Honda, if their planning application to invest in renewable energy sources is turned down due to factors other than material planning considerations.

Councillor Jim Grant
Swindon Labour Group Leader