Coun Derique Montaut (Central) announced this week that he is standing down as leader of the Labour group on Swindon Borough Council because of the “unbelievable” pressure of work.  The electorate clearly recognize his strengths when, on Thursday, he received 1829 votes or almost 65% of the total votes cast in Central Ward.  This is a testiment to how [...]

Remember that Labour will: Support jobs with money raised from repeating the bank bonus tax – not hold back recovery with the VAT rise and cuts that will put almost one million workers out of their jobs. Protect police numbers – not cut them while wasting £100 million on new elected police commissioners. Protect your [...]

Cllr Derique Montaut, Leader of the Labour Group until May 2011 and Councillor for Central Ward argues that Swindon needs a ‘critical agenda’ to get the best for our town.

On Thursday the 17th of February, the Swindon Labour Group opposed the Conservative administration’s budget and we did so for several reasons. First and foremost, we opposed the Conservatives budget because of the high risk strategy the Conservative Group have adopted in budgeting for the protection of the vulnerable. We have seen this with the [...]

Does having a green tree logo mean the Tories have the right to sell-off all our nationally owned trees? Can they justify selling off  650,000 acres of our forests in England (the plans dont apply to Scotland)  to raise £2bn, when preserving these forests costs just 30p per taxpayer per year, and gives pleasure and recreation [...]

Dear Resident I will never forget that it was you, the residents of Central who elected me as your Councillor for the next few years. I am humbled by the faith shown in me and I am grateful for all the support that has been given to me. Over the last four years I have forged many [...]

The Central Councillors have taken a slightly different approach to Street Surgery based on feedback from residents. Some residents felt that Resident Associations seem to get local issues resolved better by working with councillors and other residents in their areas. We are fortunate in Central to have two Residents Associations, one in Broadgreen and one [...]

Swindon Borough Council and the Police have been taking action to tackle under age drinking. At a Licensing Committee meeting on Tuesday 11th May the Police presented the results of some of their town centre activity. Under age test buyers who looked under age attempted to buy drinks in pubs. The Police had warned Town [...]

The Broadgreen Community Police arranged an Empowerment Day on Wednesday 12th May. This was an opportunity for Local Labour Councillors to go into the area with a Police Officer or Community Support officer to help address local issues. The plan was to intervene and take enforcement action to tackle such issues as Street Drinking or Anti-Social [...]

Central Ward will become a ‘Swindon Warm Zone’ from the middle of May. The ‘Swindon Warm Zone’ Project is a Council initiative to help alleviate fuel poverty through improving levels of insulation/heating and to get the best value out of fuel costs. All private sector homes will initially be contacted by letter and then will [...]