Swindon’s retail ranking has collapsed from 55th to 68^th.  At the same time Bristol, Bath and Oxford have all improved.  It is an indictment on the Tories that the jewels in our crown, the Mechanics Institute and the Locarno, lay decaying and in threat of destruction.  While other towns such as Bristol, Bath, and Gloucester have been transformed, in Swindon little has happened.  Regeneration has turned into degeneration.

That is why just over a year ago Swindon Labour called for action: for a new master plan to shape the future of the town.  This creates a clear vision for the town and provides developers with certainty to invest.  It should have been in place years ago.

It is time to produce a clear master plan for the regeneration of our town. This will co-ordinate and plan the different regeneration projects in order to develop a coherent town centre; and provide a clear identity and sense of place.

This new master plan should provide a Town Centre which is attractive for shopping, leisure and culture.

We need Town Centre which reflects the railway history of our town, which provides public open space so that people want to spend their time in our Town, which provides greater access and linkages to the Outlet Village and to Old Town; and which reflects a high architectural standard.

These experts have also echoed our call for the Swindon to place our railway heritage at the heart of our regeneration plan.  The railway history and the historic buildings provide a wonderful platform on which to base our vision of regeneration.

We have to make sure we do not repeat the mistakes of the past.  We should therefore develop a clear architectural standard for Swindon to ensure that in the future Swindon is a name connected with great design rather than mediocre design.

In Cardiff, Bristol, Cheltenham and Birmingham there are an array of free festivals and activities including open air pop concerts, ice rinks, big wheels, urban beeches, combined with green spaces and squares which mean that going into town is a day out.  Cafes and restaurants create a welcoming and family friendly atmosphere at night time.

Swindon needs to end the degeneration of our Town Centre which is the legacy of 8 years of Tory control; and achieve real, positive and long lasting regeneration of our Town Centre.

Our Key Promises:

• A new Regeneration Master Plan to deliver a Town Centre which is attractive for shopping, leisure and culture.
•  Greening Swindon Town Centre by creating new parks and open spaces in the town centre.
•  Promoting Swindon’s Railway Heritage by creating a Railway Village Heritage Site and heritage link between the outlet village, the Town Centre and Old Town.
•  Bringing Fun and Culture by a calendar of festivals, live events and street theatre to make coming into Swindon a real day out.
•  Rejuvenating the Local High Street by creating a calendar of specialist street markets and making empty shops available for business start ups and local art studios.
•  Getting Results from Forward Swindon by undertaking a full review of Forward Swindon and ensuring the majority of its budget is spent on projects rather than staff.

Read Labour’s Regeneration Masterplan HERE

The Leader of the Labour Group, Councillor Jim Grant, said:

“It is with great sadness that we have to announce the death of Councillor Jenny Millin. Our thoughts are with her family at this very sad time.

Since she came on to the Council back in November 2010, Jenny had been a breath of fresh air, working hard for the people she represented in Moredon and speaking passionately about matters affecting the most vulnerable people in our town . In the space of a year, her hard work was rewarded through having her surname used as a name for a recently built pathway which local residents requested and I appointed her as Labour’s Lead for Health & Social Care.

I can say with confidence that Councillor Millin will be greatly missed by her Councillor colleagues and even more by her constituents, who I know valued the hard work she put in to make the Moredon area a better place.”

]]> http://swindon-labour.co.uk/swindon/it-is-with-great-sadness-that-we-have-to-announce-the-death-of-councillor-jenny-millin/feed 1 http://swindon-labour.co.uk/swindon/communities-governance-restoring-a-peoples-council http://swindon-labour.co.uk/swindon/communities-governance-restoring-a-peoples-council#comments Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:35:05 +0000 Cllr. Jim Grant http://swindon-labour.co.uk/?p=5308 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.

Questions focused on the disastrous state of the health service, tax evasion by big business, why the finance sector had been preferred to productive industry, and why bonuses and greed couldn’t be controlled by the Tories or Lib Dems.   The audience were left full of questions about the failure of the current Government and wishing Rachel well in her new and demanding role.

Caption: Rachel Reeves and Jim Grant (Labour Group Leader) (Courtesy of O’Brian Media)

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

Eight out of the twenty proposals listed on the budget proposal web page of Swindon Borough Council are educationally based and are targeted at those with either emotional or educational difficulties.  For example:

Review of supported living for those with learning disabilities
and
Review of Learning Disability care packages

These two reviews could potentially save £563,000 according to the figure it is either going to set out.

Even with the best case scenario coming from the review this is going to do one of two things.

1. Remove completely the service from any number of current clients .
2. Set the service on a course that will inevitably lead to the closure.

I say this because it doesn’t take a genius to see that taking this much funding out of any facility can do nothing but damage the infrastructure.

I can hear response from my living room:  So Where Would You Make the Cuts?

This may not be the most popular solution but I suggest that this Council look at themselves to find the answers.  For the past 10 years they have blamed the previous labour Council for the cuts, failing services etc.  At no time have they taken any responsibility for problems of their own making.

Four of the senior members of council cabinet are accountants, yet none of them saw the problems of giving a £400,000 wi-fi project to a company with no experience in the field. On top of that they failed to notice that despite the fact that the company had received over half of the total funding there was no progress at all.

Finally, whilst the company was in the throes of bankruptcy they rubber stamped a further £200,000 payment.

This is just one case where there appears to be a problem that is nothing to do with the previous labour administration. I am not privy to all of the transactions made by this administration over the past ten years but I would ask how many more of these amazing failures might one find if we looked a little closer?

Labour’s solution to Osborne’s failed plan A and Cameron’s Tory laissez faire attitude to young people will be to tax bankers bonuses and create 100,000 jobs for young people.

People still fear for their job security as redundancies climb. The Office of National Statistics reports that there were 164,000 redundancies in September to November 2011, up 14,000 on the previous quarter and 5,000 on the year. When will Osborne ditch his plan A and accept that it isn’t working?

• 72.3 per cent voted against
• 27.7 per cent in favour.
• The turnout was 65.6 per cent, which compares well with votes in other similar-sized authorities.

The information contained within those 3 short lines, hides a long and complex story full of intrigue, excitement and balderdash. The unprecedented high turn out by tenants and their convincing NO vote will add to the mounting and increasingly obvious demoralisation of the uneasy pact that existed between Tory and LibDem councillors. They were warned that it was unwise to waste pots of council taxpayers cash on a ballot that tenants did not want. They just carried on regardless without heed, intent on hammering through the council’s preferred position to sell off the council’s housing. Tories and LibDem councillors queued up to jump onto the board of the Shadow Housing Board in particular Cllrs Mavis Child, Andy Harrison, David Renard and Brian Mattock who was appointed chair.

This preferred position was in Labour’s view not the best option for the people living in the council’s homes. It would have seen the end of the secure tenancy. It did not give equal prominence to self financing of the housing stock. The Tory and LidDem councillors used all the resources at their disposal to kite their preferred position and in doing so have squandered over half a million pounds of Swindon council Tax Payers money. Yes despite losing the ballot Swindon council tax payers have to pay for it.

Tenants complained during the consultation period that they were being bombarded by pushy calls and visits prompting them to vote Yes to the council’s preferred position to become a housing association. Cllrs Russell Holland and Garry Perkins put a motion to council to deter free expression from councillors who did not support the Tory LibDem preferred position. I and other Labour councillors did not support the preferred position and believed that a council secure tenancy was the best way to protect our tenants homes and self financing was a better way to refurbish and improve council tenant’s homes. This position will now allow the council to start building houses and increase the number of houses to rent. It was shortsighted to turn over approx 18% of the houses in Swindon to a private company that was not accountable to the people of Swindon. Owning public sector housing is a strategic necessity as it ensure that private rents cannot easily escalate to levels far above what is affordable to ordinary working families.

As a member of the Labour party I would like to take this opportunity to thank Chris Watts, a fellow Labour party member, who gave up his time to operate a website and author material. Tenants ran their own No to Transfer campaign and many people helped them. It is those silent helpers that who turned out delivering leaflets and talking to tenants who should be thanked.

The tenants saw the preferred position for what it was their homes would be hocked to a banker for the next 30 years. They took the decision to make their homes theirs for life as per the rights granted to them by a council secure tenancy.

The latest unemployment figures show that both in Swindon and nationally, the Tories economic strategy is hurting but not working.  Unemployment has soared to 2.64 million, the highest levels since 1994.  And youth unemployment is at its highest level since records began. 

The Tories are presiding over the economic decline of Swindon.  Under the Tories youth unemployment in Swindon has more than trebled and stands at the second highest in the South West region.   Cruel cuts are hurting but they are not working.  The Future Jobs Fund, Education Maintenance Allowances and the Connexions Service have been cut and tuition Fees trebled.  Families, pensioners and businesses already know the Tories cuts are hurting.  And with £158 billion more borrowing than planned to pay for economic failure – it’s just not working.

And in Swindon we see the same story. Under Labour in the 1980s Swindon became a powerhouse for inward investment attracting Honda, BMW and Nationwide.  In the last three years the Tory Council have succeeded in attracting just 3 new companies to Swindon, providing a sum total of 5 new jobs.  This is the startling truth of the Tories economic failure.

Instead we need a plan for growth.  Nationally we should implement Labour’s 5 points plan for jobs including a new bankers bonus tax to fund 100,000 jobs for young people.  By getting our economy moving again, it will help to get the deficit down.

Swindon needs a plan for growth.  Swindon Labour’s Green New Deal will ‘get Swindon working’ and build the new businesses, the new jobs and the new economy that our town needs.  Our plan includes placing Swindon at the heart of the hydrogen highway and at the forefront of creating new green collar jobs. We will also establish a new inward investment team to market Swindon and build relationships with businesses.

To help Swindon’s successful businesses to grow and expand, we will establish mini enterprise zones by reorganising the Council’s land holdings to attract supply chain businesses of Swindon’s major manufacturers. And using the extra funds from the localization of business rates we will help small businesses by creating a Small Business Loans Scheme.

To increase local opportunity for education and skills, we will build a long term plan for a University for Swindon and we will support the bid for a University Technical College to unlock the talents of local people and training provision in Swindon.  Finally we will create a new Masterplan for the regeneration of Swindon Town Centre. The Tories have failed to regenerate Swindon.  Our Masterplan is the key measure that will end degeneration and kick start regeneration.  With a strong economic strategy Swindon can once again become an economic powerhouse for jobs and prosperity.

Cllr Mark Dempsey (Deputy Leader Labour Group).

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