Walcot's Fantastic Fiction Section

Councillor Ex-Councillor Mallinson has once again flown the flag for 'his' hardworking volunteers at the Walcot Library after I.T. problems recently.

Once again councillor ex-councillor Mr Mallinson has said how amazing 'his' volunteers are, while twisting the knife into the libraries and blaming them for the I.T. problems. As anyone who has gone near Swindon Borough Council in the last 9 years will know (such as councillors ex-councillors), SBC signed a massive contract with Capita back in 2007 (signed by SBC while councillor ex-councillor Mallinson was a councillor), which included I.T. provision and support. The fact the I.T. has just come back in-house will give you an idea why 'Crapita' was a frequent word uttered around SBC regarding the quality of service, especially around I.T. 

Councillor Ex-councillor Mallinson also blames the libraries for lack of support for 'his' volunteers (despite the brand-new building that the library and charity shop 'he' runs now exists in as part of the Sussex Square rebuilding). A new building is certainly anything but a lack of support. He also makes no mention of the SBC library staffed hours that Walcot is provided with during some of it's opening hours. 

The views of Councillor ex-councillor Mallinson regarding 'his' volunteers taking over fully at Walcot, which he clearly wants in the future as he sees the library service as an inconvenience in the current discussion, is interesting when seen in relation to Old Town Library. The campaigners for Old Town Library have made it very clear they want to retain their library with paid staff in it, despite Councillor ex-councillor Mallinson extolling the virtues of volunteers back in 2010.

Even more interesting, is that Old Town Library costs the least per hour of operation compared to any other Swindon library (as can be seen for each library here, appendix 1 to be specific).

So a combination of staff and volunteers at Walcot library (open 19 hours a week), costs more per hour open, than Old Town library (open 36 hours a week) which is fully staffed all the time.

And back in 2010, Councillor ex-councillor Mallinson didn't seem too bothered about cutting his own library's opening hours when he didn't have enough volunteers to man it. 

Be interesting what the few regulars at Walcot made of finding that it was shut because no-one turned up to open it.

Rest assured that if our town's libraries do end up being fully volunteer run (which Swindoncentric finds not only insulting to the idea of building the town's knowledge, intellect and confidence, but also a scary dismantling of civic infrastructure), then at least those volunteers will be at the same level of skill as Swindon's councillors (and ex-councillors)... untrained and unskilled.

Partnership Working - The Sop for Swindon's Budget Cuts

Whether it's the Big Conversation, or the One Swindon Partnership, Swindon Borough Council seems eager to keep making a lot of getting by with very little.

In the run-up to the 2010 General Election, much was made of how government departments and agencies would need to work closer, sharing budgets, staff, equipment and more as budget cuts were coming. This policy was embraced strongly by Swindon Borough Council with both arms, as they rushed to work out how to save £15 million from one year to the next. Much was made of moving the council towards just being an 'enabler' (which sounds creepy) that would let contracts to companies to do all the jobs the local authority had previously carried out.

Another main plank was getting departments of the council, it's 'partners' (mainly it's hugely contracted-to-do-everything Capita and Swindon Commercial Services) and even, in the longer term, other neighbouring local authorities, to work in partnership to provide service and projects.

It seems even nearly 4 years later, if the word 'partnership' can be tacked onto anything, no matter how unnecessary the service or project, it's elevated to a solid level of respectability. However there's a big problem that's now being hit and that's money.

Getting departments and organisations to get to know each other and build up local knowledge is fine and should be encouraged, but trying to squeeze the same amount of productivity as pre-2010 from a council that has mostly part-time staff, tiny departments and have lost much of their local knowledge is trying to simply deny the simple truth.

If you want greater productivity and a council that plans properly for the future, we need to spend money on it. Otherwise all that'll be left is a person manning a telephone desk and a warehouse full of orange paint.

Are their any councillors arguing for investment into council manpower? Strategies and partnerships don't empty the bins.

Sparks Effect Not Extinguished By CSR

The electrification of the Great Western Main Line wasn't mentioned by the Chancellor yesterday, and sources say the scheme is "in the balance" reports Wales Online (Swindon Centric isn't able to cut and paste this into a hyperlink at the moment, but a quick Google search will find it).

The source quote in full says "This is genuinely in the balance, and we are doing all we can to see if it can be done. Do not read anything into the fact it was not mentioned by George Osbourne in his statement."

Swindon Centric Says ; A phased scheme, to Reading and then onto Oxford and eventually to Swindon and Westwards might grease Osbourne's wheels.