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

• 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 frontline local services – not make unfair cuts which will hit the least well off the most.
• Get the deficit down through strong growth and sensible cuts – not by slashing too far, too fast, and putting your local economy at risk.
• Stand up for young people – not kick away the ladder by tripling tuition fees; scrapping EMAs; cancelling Building Schools for the Future; and slashing school sport

DOWNLOAD THE SWINDON LABOUR MANIFESTO 2011

Voting Stations are open from 7am till 10pm.

Guidance on voting procedure is available from Swindon Borough Council.

Labour Candidates and their contact numbers are:

1. Abbey Meads – Mark Viner (07811 142 413).
2. Central – Derique Montaud (07711 556 261).
3. Covingham & Nythe – Peter Watts (01793 529163).
4. Dorcan – Ged Meheran (07989 918 352).
5. Eastcott – Chris Watts (07776 238 327).
6. Freshbrook & Grange Park –  Neil Heavens (07817 262 258).
7. Gorsehill & Pinehurst – John Ballman (01793 694 584).
8. Haydon Wick – Tim Page (07717 669944).
9. Highworth – Anthea Beaumont (01793 762 517).
10. Moredon – Jenny Millin (07879 023 903).
11. Old Town - Cindy Matthews (01793 644 388).
12. Parks – Fay Howard (07952 350 656).
13. Penhill – Paul Baker (01793 334 598).
14. Shaw & Nine Elms – Michael Heal (07810 872 849).
15. St Margaret – Nigel Chalk (01793 346165).
16. St Philips – Joe Tray (07813 170 202).
17. Toothill – Steve Wakefield (07775 911 922).
18. Walcot – Ellen Osa (07577 923 694) .
19. Wroughton – Geraint Day (07753 957 565).
20. Western – Des Moffatt (07709 066 707).

Polling Stations locations are available from THIS LINK:

To use this link you’ll need to know your Polling District. Check on your card – the Districts in each Ward are as follows:

1. Abbey Meads - AM1-AM4.
2. Central – CE1-CE4.
3. Covingham & Nythe – CN1-CN4.
4. Dorcan – DN1-DN4.
5. Eastcott – ET1-ET5.
6. Freshbrook & Grange Park –  FG1-FG4.
7. Gorsehill & Pinehurst – GH1-GH3.
8. Haydon Wick – HG1-HG5.
9. Highworth – HW1-HW5.
10. Moredon – MD1-MD6.
11. Old Town - TL1-TL5.
12. Parks – PK1-PK4.
13. Penhill – PH1-PH4.
14. Shaw & Nine Elms – SE1-SE4.
15. St Margaret – SM1-SM3.
16. St Philips – SP1-SP6
17. Toothill – TW1-TW3.
18. Walcot – WA1-WA3.
19. Wroughton – WC1-WC5.
20. Western – WE1-WE4.

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OFFER YOUR HELP IN NORTH SWINDON OR SOUTH SWINDON

• Hospitality and Bottled Water (£51,000)
• Communications (£400,000)
• Local Government Bodies (£71,704)
• External Consultants (£446,039 between April & September 2010)
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Surestart is there to give children a sure footing as they make their first steps in life. Labour did not tinker at the edges they had a grand plan some 3,500 Surestart Centres Swindon is fortunate to have 14 of these centres. The centres are more than just a vital public service they put vitality back into the community by helping children and families. This vitality is an investment in the future it is not a luxury child minding service for yummy mummies, it is a tried and tested formula. With 10 years under its belt and hundreds of thousands of children benefiting from them, Surestart Centres are giving children a better start in life. David Cameron himself said of Surestart:

The point is that we support Sure Start, we will keep Sure Start. (Telegraph 11/1/10)

That is why we are shocked to hear that funding to Swindon’s Surestart Centres is being cut by up to 33% . Penhill will bear the brunt of  the cuts and it has caused shock in Penhill as people are outraged by what the Libdem Conservative Coalition is doing. The Tories may lead the coalition, but without the support of the Libdems there would be no coalition government and no cuts.  Cllr David Renard speaking to the Swindon Advertiser did not do anything to calm users  fears by dispelling the rumour, in fact he added to it when he said :

“There is a rumour of a third cut in the provision but I don’t think it will look as drastic as that. Until we have worked through everything we are not in a position to be specific”.

Cllr Renard admitted that Penhill was a flagship centre:

“The SureStart centre in Penhill was one of the first ones the previous government set up and set up with an extremely generous amount of ring fenced money as it was one of the flagships of the programme,”

So why cut it?  Only Tories would downgrade a flagship what they hope to do is to shave funds from each Surestart Centre so that they do not have to close any.  Making a flagship service into a skeleton service will do nothing for the 1000+ children using them in Swindon. This is heartless it is nothing more than a sham they do not want to close one centre, but will let them wither away. It is nothing less than political  vandalism of a vital service. A cruel cut that will hit thousands of Swindon  children now and in future.

Also affected are Childrens Centres in Penhill, Goddard Park, Westcott St, Freshbroom, Drove Rd, Gorsehill, Middleleaze, Eldene, Stratton, Highworth, Croft and Abbeymeads.

Please contact us with your support and leave a comment below…

Fay Howard, Councillor for Parks and Labour Spokesperson for Children and Youth Services;  Steve Wakefield, Councillor Toothill & Westlea;  Paul Baker, Councillor Penhill.

I’m trying to find out youth unemployment statistics in Swindon, but I know many school-leavers and young people in Penhill who simply can’t find a job no matter how hard the try.  And what have this Government done?  They’ve closed down the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and abolished the Future Jobs Fund.  Britian is now very close to seeing 1 million young people struggling to find work – and things wont get better in the months ahead – certainly not in Swindon where the Council is laying off staff and doing nothing to tackle the crisis of youth unemployment.

Tomorrow, Gordon Brown will call on world leaders to make youth unemployment a priority for the Group of 20 world economies.  He’s talking about a “generational timebomb” which can only be tackled by Governments getting together to keep stimulating economies and not putting up the shutters on UK PLC like own David Cameron is doing.

In Swindon we see the effects of harsh educational cuts and the tripling of tuition fees.  How much worse can it get?  Instead of our MPs fighting for young people in Swindon, they do the opposite by voting for the rise – despite receiving free university education when they were there.  We are about to witness a sharp rise in the number of school drop-outs this year in Swindon and a high level of young people being unable to continue at school or college. They will emerge onto the labour market at a time when jobs have dried up.

New crime statistics are due to be released tomorrow – watch this space to see what effect this hopeless situation for our youth is having on crime.

Now is the time to fight Swindon Borough making excessive cuts – join the Labour Party!!  Click the ‘Join Labour’ icon opposite and play your part in keeping Swindon prosperous.

Paul Baker Councillor Penhill,  George Nimfour – Labour Youth Officer, South Swindon; Steve Adams – Labour Youth Officer, North Swindon.

The review will consider changes to the number of councillors on the council as well as the number and boundaries of the council’s electoral wards.

Max Caller, Chair of the Commission, said:

• “Having fair electoral boundaries is important for local democracy.”
• “The purpose of a review is to try to ensure that each councillor represents around the same number of people and that every elector’s vote is worth the same. That’s not the case at the moment: Abbey Meads ward, for example, has 65% more electors per councillor than the average in Swindon, whereas Penhill ward has 15% fewer.”
• “We’ll also be looking to take into account local community identities. This is your chance to shape your council for the future.”

The first stage of the Commission’s consultation closes on 30th August 2010. During this stage, local people are being invited to comment – specifically – on how many councillors should serve the Swindon area in total.

Once it has considered the evidence provided by local people and organisations, the Commission will then publish its decision on the total number of councillors and invite further views on where new ward boundaries should be drawn. By April 2011, the Commission will publish draft recommendations for new wards across Swindon.

Following further public consultation on its draft recommendations, the Commission is likely to publish its final proposals by Autumn 2011.

Further information on electoral reviews and guidance on what sort of information the Commission is looking for should be available at council offices, in your local library, or the following website at www.lgbce.org.uk

Caption:  Laura leading a band of canvassers in southern Penhill.

However, Labour and the Liberal Democrats share a lot of progressive ideals, and the Lib Dems agree with Labour in many areas.  Labour is committed to having a referendum on introducing a form of proportional system.  This will certainly benefit the Lib Dems, and is fiercely opposed by the Tories.

So in both the national and local elections on Thursday can I ask all progressive voters to put their cross beside Agarwal and other excellent local labour candidates like Laura Baker in Penhill – shown here  leading the Canvassing team….  SO on Thursday …..

Vote for JOBS – remember there is 2% less unemployment in the UK than in Europe and the USA.

Vote for the RECOVERY –  remember that the OECD forecasts that next quarter the UK economy will be growing 2nd fastest in Europe.

Vote for FAIRNESS for the working man and woman – remember the Tories are committed to giving a £200,000 inheritance tax break to the 3,000 wealthiest families in Britain.

Vote for Victor Agarwal,  The Labour Candidate for North Swindon

Caption:  Laura Baker, Labour Candidate in Penhill and a canvass team.

I am writing to you to ask you for your support in the forthcoming local elections on May 6^th 2010.

What Labour Has Done for Penhill

• Refurbishment & rebuilding Penhill & Sevenfields schoool - paid for with Labour government money
• Penhill Neighbourhood Police Team & local Police Community Police Support Officers - paid for with Labour government money
• Swindon Academy. State of the art educational establishment for Penhill children - paid for with Labour government money
• Free bus travel for Penhill pensioners - paid for by Labour governments money

Laura’s Pledges for Penhill

• Defend the Everleigh Road Sure Start scheme against the threat of closure.
• Campaign against the Tory council council’s proposals to sell off Penhill council housing
• Lobby the council to spend money on resurfacing and repairing the roads of Penhill

Laura Baker, Labour Candidate Penhill Ward

The Tories are spending millions (literally) on their poster campaigns and must be helping the economy doing this. This is a nice picture of Gordon that I spotted at the Moonrakers Roundabout, but it’s a pity that the Conservatives didn’t check the facts before printing it…

… the facts are that, if we exclude the full-time students from youth ‘unemployment’ (and that is the definition of the International Labour Organisation), there are 657,000 young people who are unemployed, compared to 830,000 in the early ’90s and more than 1 million in the early ’80s.  It was the Tories who turned their back on young unemployed and left a lost generation, whose scars we have seen for very many years.

Labour is not prepared to turn its back:  which is why we are investing in the youth guarantee.  Labour is backing 470,000 additional youth opportunities, including through the £1 billion future jobs fund, as well as extra training and job opportunities. That is part of the youth guarantee:  which is that all young people should be guaranteed a job, training or a work placement if they have been unemployed for more than six months. The Tories oppose all this and are pledged to scrap the guarantee.

So can I thank my Tory opponents for paying for this expensive poster.  I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to put the facts straight.

Incidentally,  total unemployment in the UK is now 7.6%.  That’s not acceptable,  but its 2% lower than the EU average and only 0.1% higher than Germany.  The Tories voted against most (all?) of the measures that we put in place to save jobs through the depression.

Victor Agarwal, Labour Candidate, North Swindon.