In these blogs my aim is to provide a clear vision for Swindon. This vision will have a few areas of overlap with the current Conservative administration’s, however it will largely be different as it is clear that the Conservatives’ vision for Swindon is misguided and that new and fresh ideas are needed to turn our town around.

The vision I will be setting out will be mainly based on the views I hear from local residents on the doorstep. The most frequently heard views I hear from local residents include them wanting their Council focussing on delivering high-quality services, not fantasy projects. They want a town with an identity, based on its history and its heritage.  They want public sector staff fully focussed on protecting those people who are vulnerable, not private sector staff focussed on delivering profit.

These are the kind of views where I will start from when working with my fellow Labour Councillors in formulating our vision for the town and I look forward to setting out this vision in the coming weeks and months.

In setting this vision I will be ably supported by my new Shadow Cabinet:

• Mark Dempsey (Deputy Leader and Spokesperson for Regeneration and Transport)
• Des Moffatt (Resources)
• Steve Allsopp (Housing)
• Fay Howard (Children’s Services)
• Bob Wright (Communities)
• Jenny Millin (Adult Social Care)
• Steve Wakefield (Streetscene)
• Junab Ali (Leisure)

Councillor Jim Grant

Leader of the Labour Group

• 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

With every job vacancy in Swindon being applied for by 10 unemployed people in certain sections of the town, its  increasingly obvious that Swindon needs jobs not cuts.

However, instead of Swindon Borough Council mitigating the Conservative-led Government’s cuts to jobs for ordinary Swindon residents (like the scrapping of the Future Jobs Fund that brought 454 jobs to the town)  Swindon Borough Council has continued to waste millions of pounds each year on external consultants, conference expenses, hospitality and bottled water.

What’s worse is that while Tory-led Swindon Council has been shelling out on these luxuries, they have cut 238 Full-Time Equivalent employees, with cuts in excess of £6 million to its Adult Social Care Budget.  The Swindon Labour Party believes this neither meets the jobs nor fairness test.

A Labour-led Swindon Borough Council would:

• Implement a line by line review of the Swindon Borough Council revenue budget before our first budget round in administration, treating every penny of Council-tax payers’ money with the respect it needs
• Freeze the Council-tax in the 2011/12 and 2012/13 financial years
• Work with industry and commerce to represent Swindon’s business community, in order to secure low prices of goods for the Council and greater funding to protect vulnerable people
• Vociferously oppose Central Government cuts, which are costing jobs in the town and are disadvantaging the poor and the vulnerable

Jobs

• Raise apprenticeships and vocational training up the Council’s priority scale
• Make Swindon a Green Hub for the UK, encouraging and incentivizing green businesses and social enterprises to settle in Swindon

Housing

• Building at least 100 new Council houses per year
• Helping Swindon’s struggling first-time buyers into the housing market by piloting new schemes

Regeneration

• Develop a proper and credible plan for the Swindon town centre
• Review the effectiveness and value for money of the Forward Swindon Regeneration Company

Fairness

• Mitigate any cuts being imposed by Central Government on Swindon’s SureStart Children Centers
• Cut senior management costs by no less than 30% of current costs.

I have long been active in the Union, having joined the TGWU in Pressed Steel in 1964, and become a shop steward in the Plessey Empire in 1967.  With a young child and another on the way I was moved by the drama documentary in 1965, Cathy come home.  When I actually joined the Labour Party is lost in the mists of time but the turning point for me was a speech to the Union conference in 1977 when Jack Jones told us to “stop whinging about the Labour Party, get involved”, I did……

The then continuing separation of Union and Party let to the winter of discontent and 18 years of Tory government.  I was later persuaded to be the Vice Chair of Western Branch by a great Swindon railway man, Arthur Archer, who promptly moved out of Western and left me holding the reins.  We made a mistake in 1982 and selected a former Liberal to be our Western Council Candidate and worked hard to get him elected, he then followed his chosen career and moved up north within six months. Lesson learnt.

I and others have been determined ever since that our candidates will be Western resident and not political careerist.  I was the candidate in 1983 and was elected and remained Western Councillor until 1997.  During that period I was chair of Community Development for 2 years and Chair of Housing and Health for 8 years. I was also Chair of the Licensing Sub-Committee for 3 years. Depending how you approach the job of Councillor and your work situation, it can be quite a burden. I mistakenly believed that persuading my employer to allow me to work permanently early shift would give me more time but energy levels dropped and jobs about the home were left wanting.  In my last full year as Chair of H&H I received £1340.  The modern equivalent gets £20,000 and that creates the opportunity to take the necessary time off work.

I was succeeded by the excellent Michael Barnes, another Western resident of long standing who joined Keith and young Kevin Small, both of whom were born and bred up in Western. When Keith died in office I was persuaded to come back, and have been a Western Councillor on Swindon Borough since January 2004.

I had not intended to go on for very long but I have to confess I was shocked by the behaviour of many of the new intake of Tory Councillors.  I often think how ashamed I would have been if Labour, as the controlling group on Thamesdown Council, had displayed the same arrogant sneering contempt for the opposition shown by these young Tories, and led by Justin Tomlinson.   I can only remember one incident where I was cruel to Tony Jacobs of the SDLP,  but who knows how others perceived us.  It is because of this Tory behaviour I am determined to continue until this gang that centres on Tomlinson have been put in their place by the electorate.

So once again, please contact me with your concerns, and work with me to keep Western the best ward in Swindon.

Cllr Des Moffatt, Western Ward.

The Tory record in charging Council tax is much worse than Labours when the actual payment is taken into account.  It was in 2002 when Rod Bluh claims his party took control and the Council Tax then in Band D was £757 excluding Fire, Police and Parishes rates.  It is now £1,130.using the same criteria. This is verifiable on the Council’s own Web site.  The Tory percentage thing is not provable and is indeed a Tory spin doctor’s campaign slogan.

It was in 2002 that the then Tory Leader in Swindon proposed an increase of 12.5% on Council Tax.  We don’t have a problem with that;  it was the right thing to do at that time.  I dont intend to get into a race with Tories in reducing Tax and services.  Labour would not be spending the Councils cash on day dreams like canals, tabernacle stones or WiFi.

The reason Swindon has been in financial difficulty since it took over from Thamesdown has been the formula by which central government grant is calculated.  Local Tories have endless coverage in their supportive press and radio about how Swindon was done down by the last Labour Government  Now their Tory successors have overseen a change in the formula making matters worse.  Shire districts have had cuts of around 3% while urban areas such as Swindon have been cut by 8.9% and more – yet Tory MPs and Councillors have nothing to say on the matter.  Mr Bluh and his cronies have been a disaster for Swindon; they should get out of the way and let a proper business person take over as leader while Tories remain in control of the Swindon Council.

Join us and help make sure that we rid ourselves of this gang as soon as possible.

Des Moffatt, Cllr Western Ward.

• I regard a lot of it unhelpful hype that obscures the very real cuts implemented by this Tory government.
• The £8.5 million lost grant is real, unavoidable and inflicts real damage on the services available to the people of Swindon.
• The grant formula has been tweaked by the Whitehall mandarins to the effect that urban areas such as Swindon do badly in the share of the cutting compared to rural areas such as Wiltshire.
• Many of the specific grants, once thought to be sacrosanct,  have been lumped into the main grant before the formula is applied – further hurting Swindon.
• That means there are now more budgets available to cut away at, watch this space for some surprises. We already know about Sure Start being considered.
• There are more cuts of a similar size already determined in the Tory government’s spending review on each of the next three years.
• Police and Fire & Rescue are also affected.
• The phrase favoured by Tory politicians, and silently accepted by Liberal lackeys, “doing things differently” should be heard as “not doing it at all”.

Cllr Des Moffatt

“In light of the continued failure by Forward Swindon Limited and its predecessor organisation to deliver regeneration to any part of Swindon beyond that enabled by public sector funding, Council invites the Chief Executive to take a report to Cabinet outlining the effect of abolishing Forward Swindon Limited, with the duties in economic and regeneration being brought under the direct management of the Group Director of Environment, Regeneration and Community, reporting to a single politically balanced group without Executive Powers.  Council requests that the Chief Executive further reports details of what savings there are to be realised on the £1.2 million revenue funding from the public purse (for which SBC currently contributes £760K) of Forward Swindon Limited.”

Contrary to the local paper headline, the Labour Group does not seek to end regeneration.  This is what Des said in moving the motion.

Voting for this resolution is not as perceived, it is not voting to abolish Forward Swindon, it is asking for a root and branch review cutting through the hype and re-examining the value for money of the process in light of achievements by Forward Swindon and its predecessor’s efforts. We have had far too many written and verbal ‘artists impressions’ and no delivery.

It was Sue Bates and Mike Bowden who in 2002 set up the New Swindon Company and they did that to take advantage of the regeneration money available from the then Labour government, and there has been success in that with the help of the then Labour MPs.

That has now run its course it seems to me.  When we examine what has happened, apart from that funded from public purse there has been no private sector investment worth getting excited about.  That the College site design is better than nothing has been the argument used to the critics of detail of that design. The British Home stores redevelopment was opposed initially by the redevelopment company. Not everyone is convinced Juries Inn is of fundamental benefit to the Swindon economy and was probably very little to do with any regeneration initiative anyway.

I have made it my business to try and find out exactly what it is the regeneration company does and even though I probably know more than most outside of the inner circle of the administration with the exception of Cllr Nick Martin, I haven’t done very well in that. Did you know for example that Forward Swindon still doesn’t have a board even though the decision to set it up was approved by cabinet on the 10th of March.

Oh I am quite sure that Forward Swindon employees individually are diligent and capable people but as a team they have failed. Like Liverpool football club, changing the manager might not be enough, we have had changes of the chief executive, we may need to change the ownership as well.

I was quite surprised to learn just how much of the work one would think was the job of the regeneration people  is actually done by Swindon Council’s direct employees.  Planning, traffic impact, finance, property and much more remain the remit of Council officers.

We are saying that the time may be now to consider bringing the whole shamozzale back in house. After all we have missed out in the successor organisations to the Regional Development Agencies. Local Enterprise Partnerships, nothing is left for us.  Wiltshire and Gloucester, and their centres of population are our direct competitors it strikes me.  There is nothing new in being on our own.  We have always fallen between stools, the M4 corridor development or the South West.  In the past we have used this to our advantage by giving business direct access to our public service officers and we can again.

Contrary to the mantra of some, practical and genuine doers in commerce and industry want to talk to the leading civil servants of the area, and prefer to do that without amateurs like us getting in the way.   I include most of the front bench in that description. Our principle officers should talk to industry without us getting in the way.

What we must do in my opinion is focus on what’s best for Swindon, and to do that I believe we need to empower the people who work directly for Swindon Council and whose personal success is bound up in Swindon’s success and not dependant on the networking that can be achieved in the regeneration circuit.

Then there is the undoubted saving to the public purse, and in particular Swindon’s public purse, in bringing this activity back in house.  A visit to Bridge House would give members a taste of what is available, relative to, for example floor 3 in Watt Tyler House and new ways of working.

Cllr Des Moffatt

Many more cuts are coming, but what is proposed is bad enough:

• Withdraw the annual Play Service budget and the associated development activities (cutting £142,ooo annually )
• Cut “Connexions” – a specialist service targeted at those who are not in education, employment or training (saving £712,000 annually)
• Change the opening hours of the Swindon Direct one-stop-shop to open later and close earlier and stay closed at weekends (saving £45,000 annually)
• Change the opening hours of the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery to open 4 days a week rather than 6 (saving £12,000 annually)
• Close the County Ground Lifestyle Centre with some services moved elsewhere and all indoor services closed- i.e. gym, activity room, consultation room and offices (saving £20,000 annually
• Cuts in day-care services (saving £750,000 annually)
• Cuts in the Connect Supported Employment service which helps people with learning and associated disabilities gain employment (saving £235,000 annually)

Comments are being accepted up to 17th September.  I wonder if we are allowed to ask why the cuts (like the 20% VAT tax rise) fall unfairly on the poorest and most disadvantaged in Swindon?  Or why the Government has targeted cuts disproportionately on Swindon?  Or how £45 million cuts over the next 3 years (a 33% reduction!) can be justified when it means loss of jobs and taxes to the Government?  Or why the Council is lending to a Wi-Fi company when our finances are in such dire straits? Or what the 2 local Conservative MPs are doing to fight for Swindon’s interests?  More than 18 people would be interested in answers to those questions….

Cllr Jim Grant (Deputy Leader Labour Group).

I’m pleased that the Trust are concentrating on three strategic projects:

• town centre regeneration – focusing on the need to contribute to the best possible regeneration of our town centre and its long-term needs;
• creating a University for Swindon – building on previous studies and producing an economic and academic case for the university to be centrally located;
• Swindon’s landscapes - helping communities to establish a positive sense of identity and wellbeing, and encouraging residents to become more involved with planning for both conservation and change.

These are all areas that the Labour Group campaigned on at the last election, and we also included the following Civic Trust priorities in our detailed plans:

• recognising the character & potential of the GWR Heritage Area & its neglected landmarks;
• securing a central position for the Modern Art Collection and Registrar’s Office;
• producing a plan to resolve traffic circulation and design an ultra-light transport circuit.

The Labour Group looks forward to discussing these issues with the Civic Trust in preparation for Labour regaining a majority on Swindon Borough Council in May 2012…