The Swindon Town Tory Coup-Step

 The silly season is upon us, but for the Conservative group in charge of Swindon Borough Council that means all seasons. 

Evidence of which is clear with the previously Tory, then independent and now nearly Tory again Haydon Wick councillor Oliver Donachie. All in the space of roughly 3 months. What's even stranger is that the Conservative group has voted (closely) to readmit him to the party, despite calling the current leader "lethargic" and "asleep at the wheel", he hasn't apologised or answered questions from fellow members, claims one member of the group.

But they still voted to readmit him. Is something else afoot? Has anyone seen Donachie measuring for new curtains in the Tory leader's office?

Current Conservative Leader David Renard says an announcement will be made when the "group is satisfied the applicant will uphold the highest standards of group membership".

Whatever they might be.

Swindon Elections - The Long Bluh Shadow

Despite it being over six years since Rod Bluh was Swindon Conservative leader, his comments have rankled the current members into a long and rambling statement.

From Brexit to not living in the ward, to the track record of the Tory candidate and finally a swipe at Corbyn, it seems like the person writing the statement has just cobbled together any old guff and sent it out.

The bluster of the Tory statement shows just how much sway they believe Rod Bluh's comments hold with voters.

But of course, they won't admit it.

Maybe tomorrow night's results will reveal the Tory vote slowly sinking into the marshy ground of Wichelstowe, clucking away about anything it doesn't like.

Do as I say, not as I do

The row about budget cuts at Swindon Museum & Art Gallery is insightful to civic assets that are deemed more important than others, depending on where they are.

The quote from Councillor Heenan is even more interesting :

"The unvarnished reality is that the current Museum and Art Gallery brings in no income of note, has extremely low footfall and is subsidised by taxpayers to the tune of £200,000 per year and Labour councillors are happy to see this continue."

Substitute the asset name 'Liden Library' and the different amount of subsidy pre-Henan takeover and you have the perfect example of what is deemed important to councillors now we all live in a parished world.

The Conservative Borough council (along with Labour councillors) was more than happy to heap praise upon the Museum when councillors had the scent of lottery money in their nostrils. As that has fallen by the wayside, we're all expected to forget the very recent past and rally behind the budget cuts in an alternate reality.

With the current councillors in charge, don't forget, the council (under the influence and whims of ruling councillors) functions primarily just as an accounting exercise.

Do as I say, not as I do (apart from if it's in your own parish).

The League of Innocent Gentleman

The most newsworthy part of this Adver story is that Councillor Nick Burns-Howell does not know what a 'gentleman's club' is.

Swindon Conservatives should do a whip-round and buy Councillor Nick a voucher for Christmas.

Anyone for a Cheeky Justin?

Justin Tomlinson got a tour of the new Nandos at the Orbital.

Plenty of quotes about the economic and leisure benefits for residents of the area, but precious little (make that zero) on the nutritional value of a cheeky Nandos. Especially in comparison to other fast-food choices.

Did he go for a good runabout afterwards?

Noddy Promotion in Toyland

Swindoncentric nearly spat out it's coffee on hearing that Councillor Dale Heenan is now cabinet member for the town centre and regeneration.

Councillor Foley's move is slightly less interesting, apart from her quitting two positions before.

Maybe Dale can do a jumble sale to raise money for regenerating the town centre, a few quid will get Kimmerfields built, I'm sure.

I mean, look at the Sim City that is Liden after his the golden touch!

Lets hope he can spell the name of the town.

On The Slow Train To Daleville

When politicians have to use public services, they quickly realise why the public thinks the way they do about them.

The latest to come-of-age is Councillor Dale 'I-forgot-to-pay-my-council-tax' Heenan, who's realised how pricey railway season tickets are as he commutes to Bath for work.

Maybe Councillor Dale 'There's-only-one-n-in-Swindon''There's-only-one-n-in-Swindon' could get his mate MP Justin 'Can I interest you in a press release?' Tomlinson to explain the railways, as evidence suggest he's nothing but informed and consistent, especially on the topic of fares.

For a railway town, some of our politicians knowledge calls for one announcement, "MIND THE GAP."

Swindon Election - Within a Hair's Breadth

Labour came within touching distance of taking control of Swindon Borough Council last night, but it was no cigar for the reds.

They did claim a significant piece of turf, taking another seat in the Eastcott ward, out of an area the Lib Dems often claim to be their Swindon home (that home now very small, a bedsit room in an Eastcott HMO probably).

But the yellow's did win in Wroughton & Wichelstowe from the Conservatives, showing that the retired, wealthy blue voters over the M4 can't always be relied upon.

So there is now a one seat Tory majority Swindon Borough Council. Full results here.

Labour will now be pinning their hopes on a by-election that they can gain a seat and the council by.

Any families or gardens out there that need to have more time spent with them?

Anyone?

Swindon Election : The Tory Legacy - The Monetisation of Swindon

If the Tories lose their majority on Swindon Borough Council tomorrow it'll mark the passing of an era that's a microcosm of Conservative national policy on one location.

Ultimately it'll mark the passing of the era that shifted from a full-service local authority to the tendering-out of much of it's function, then as the financial crisis started to bite the spinning-off of various remaining parts in an effort to make them profit-centres for SBC. Realising that was impossible for most parts and the cost of bringing them back in house and the final incarnation, an SBC cut back to beyond the bone, with vital bits missing, operating barely with minimal or no financial support and an entire absence of experience and knowledge from it's senior officers.

It saw a body of politicians so out of touch with it's own electorate (scared? Probably) that it imposed a new level of local bureaucracy (parish councils) to offload services and itemise the parish precept to them with explaining it away with "you're paying more because there's a parish now" despite the idiocy of many Borough councillors also now being Parish councillors at the same time.

The loss of economies of scale in contracting, purchasing and administration mean you are paying more and you are getting less, be in no doubt. This advert shows nearly £26,000 for a deputy parish clerk in one parish, plus they'll need an office, a PC, printer/photocopier, a website, I.T. support...

That's not even mentioning wringing cash out of Thamesdown Transport in the good years, then turning face and saying it was responsible when councillors chose to cut bus subsidy to lightly-used routes that could never be commercially run. Then of course selling it off in the end.

Then there's the £400,000 they gave to a businessman and we never saw again, the closure of Sure Start Centres, the axe swung in Dial-a-Ride's direction, the shock-doctrine threatened closure of all the town's libraries (except one), the Lydiard Park cock-up but the continued subsidy to Steam, the sacrifice of land around Coate Water, the roads to nowhere for a decade at Wichelstowe, the privatisation of Swindon Commercial Services (then that being reversed), the spinning-off of adult social care (SEQOL), the bizarre situation where they sponsored the town's half marathon, then it's return to council ownership, and on and on and on.

None of the above was inevitable, councillors get to choose what happens when they run a town, the choices may be limited in some situations, but they still exist.

Swindon has a choice tomorrow, we can choose to have a town with a council who's officers and politicians truly are the servants of the people. Or we can carry on like this.

The choice is ours.

Swindon Election : Swindon Tories Leafleted during Suspension

Swindoncentric received reports of Tory leaflets being dropped through doors on Thursday, before general election campaigning was due to restart this morning.

Not really appropriate.

Swindon Elections : Welcome to your Rotten Parish

The hopes of the new Swindon parishes being a haven from traditional party politics were dashed, as the usual battles were fought last night.

The only things to note :

- The uncontesting of many wards by the Tories, are they afraid of Labour in their traditional strongholds?

- The number of independents that ran and won.

- The level of 'gotta get a double seat' by candidates who now have the bizarre, but self-inflicted situation of representing the same ward as a local Borough councillor and now as a Parish councillor, surely a conflict of interest and pointless ultimately. Are they going to disagree with themselves?

- The return of the previously politically dead former local Borough councillors that were persuaded by HQ to return as a parish councillor as they can do it while they sleep the sleep of the undead.

- The very unwelcome return of the disgraced former Mayor.

- The family affair of many candidates, often in the same seats, husbands and wives, mothers and sons, partners, you can imagine it must be a riot in those households of an evening.

So parishing has done exactly what people feared, created an entirely unwanted and unnecessary new layer of administration, with, mostly, the same people in charge of the biggest parts of the town (bar the independents) and a lack of imagination, especially from the Tories, with the wheeling out of undead former councillors to fill the gaps.

Onto the general.

Swindon Elections : The Truth, In Shadow Parish Form

When is a a Tory election leaflet not a Tory election leaflet?

When it's accurate and honest!

No change with Swindon's Tories and their election leaflets, even for the imposed and unwanted parish council elections tomorrow it seems.

The leaflet for the new West Swindon Parish is one simple case in point. It makes two claims that are blindingly wrong on a list of achievements the shadow parish has already completed.

Claim number 1 :

- Contributed 16 more hours for the West Swindon library. 

Misleading, as the library, was, until the start of April, open 50 hours a week, which the Tory Borough Council (which includes all the shadow parish councillors as they are all Borough councillors too) cut to 15 hours a week and the West Swindon Parish chose to divert money from the closing of toilets at West Swindon District Centre to pay for an additional 16 hours, bringing it down to 31 hours. So an accurate achievement would have been :

- Cut library hours from 50 to 31 (we're only paying for 16) and cut West Swindon's only public toilets.

Claim number 2 :

- Created a local services hub by using the library for the Parish Council office. 

This is wrong, there is no parish council office in West Swindon Library.

So one misleading claim and one untrue. What other hideous gems are there out there?

Feckless & Cowardly Conservative Councillors Hang Parishes Out To Die

There's an awful lot of skulking happening around Swindon's Civic Offices at present and with good reason.

The biggest transfer of power at local government level in Swindon since the creation of the Borough in 1997 is currently afoot with the foisting upon of Borough responsibilities to current parishes and the newly (yet to properly be created) ones.

As a result of this, there's a scramble to set the parish precept (the amount with the annual council tax bill that covers the services carried out by the parish within your area) with all these newly foisted upon services suddenly having to be taken into account. This is quite a shock administratively and politically as many simply cut the grass until recently.

Haydon Wick has voted a 50% increase in tax.

Stratton has voted a 27% increase in tax.

Wroughton has voted a 16.5% increase for a band D property.

Meanwhile the Borough Council has not raised council tax in Swindon since 2007, teetered on the brink of service-provision oblivion, dumped said services into the laps of parishes (and where they've not existed, just forced their undemocratic creation), and seen them have no choice but to raise tax to eye-watering levels.

Other authorities have and are doing it differently. Surrey County Council is proposing a 15% council tax increase, it, like Swindon, is Conservative-run and has had enough of government nationally sticking it's fingers in it's ears and thinking if it can't hear, everything's fine.

Swindon Borough Council's ruling Tories have done nothing of the sort, they have axed, cut and closed services while they could have been lobbying parliament nationally with the help of their Conservative MPs and putting their heads above the parapet and fighting for the people of Swindon.

But they've not. They've done nothing.

Swindon Borough Council's Conservatives are feckless, cowardly and irresponsible with the future of the Borough.

But I'm sure in the next financial year those three talents will be devolved to parishes.

Welcome to the Rotten Borough (now with 50% more parish for 50% more money).

U-Turn If You Want To : Courtliff's Back In The Room

Less than 24 hours after announcing he was crossing the floor to Conservatives, Councillor Matthew Courtliff (Labour, Conservative, Labour. Freshbrook & Lydiard) has now u-turned and is back with Swindon Labour.

He describes it as the "most stupid 24 hours of my life".

More details to follow after we finish hitting our head against a wall.

Does Courtliff's Trust In Swindon Tories Prove Lydiard's a Done Deal?

There may have been more questions last night than answers after Councillor Matthew Courtliff's floor-crossing to the Tories, but has one answer already been settled?

If the assurances that have been given to Councillor Courtliff by the Tories on Lydiard are solid, then does that mean a trust organisation is almost guaranteed to take over the park and house?

Has a councillor's bit of political theatre also given us the last act in the Lydiard saga?

Labour Courtliff's Tory Defection Throws "honesty, integrity and humility" Out The Window

Councillor Matthew Courtliff (Labour, Conservative, Lydiard & Freshbrook) shocked Swindon politics tonight by defecting to the Tories.

He promised "I will always serve you with my values of honour, integrity and humility".

Just five months after being elected almost entirely on a 'no to selling off Lydiard Park' mandate, he has crossed the floor after reportedly being given assurances by the Tory group on Lydiard's future.

He also appears to have deleted his Twitter account.

How can assurances be given when bidding is still underway?

Does this show how desperate Swindon Tories are to hang onto SBC control by making promises in return for a floor-crossing?

How can Councillor Courtliff now defend Swindon Conservative plans for the asset-stripping of Swindon, having campaigned against them to get elected?

How can Councillor Courtliff justify his position without a by-election after changing party?

What state does this leave Swindon Labour in? A dire one it can only be concluded.

There are many questions in the rotten borough tonight, but few answers.

Holland 1 - 0 Mattock

Councillor Russell Holland has been appointed as the new Deputy Leader of Swindon Borough Council following the local election last week.

Labour won in Old Town and East Wichel causing Councillor Former Councillor Brian Mattock to lose his seat and his Deputy Leader title with it as well.

Dial-A-Conservative-Cut

A cut of £100,000 from £300,000 will have to be stomached by the good folk that run the Dial-A-Ride service.

As per usual, Dale Heenan just doesn't get it regarding the Swindon Labour's objections to the cut, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to stop the ruling Swindon Conservative top brass from objecting in principle to the cuts it is being made to impose by central government.

However, no matter how bitter the pill, Swindon Conservatives have been swallowing everything handed to them by Whitehall.

Have they formally objected once and asked for a better deal? The ability to raise council tax above and beyond the approved level? To ask for a reexamination of the local government grant?

No of course they haven't. They may wield all the power, but none of the courage and compassion of their office.

Swindon Elections - Labour, Lydiard and Losing Mattock Man

Labour gained two seats from the Swindon Conservatives in last night's local elections, and it all couldn't have been more local if you'd tried.

Lydiard & Freshbrook went to Labour from the Conservatives because they campaigned hard on Lydiard Park and House, getting the message and the groundwork right.

Up on the hill, Jane Milner-Barry won for them on pushing the parishing issue (which no-one, even many in the Swindon Conservatives fully understand), but also the Lydiard sell-off/lease-off issue was big too for voters in Old Town.

Worse for the Tories was that Milner Barry took the seat from the Deputy Leader of Swindon Borough Council  Former Deputy Leader, Councillor Former Councillor Brian Mattock (or as we like to call him, Mattock Man after 'his' astonishing list of achievements in his leaflet). But this picture of him is priceless (scroll down to 12.15am)

Once again Stan Pajak retained Eastcott, despite a very strong push by Labour (the Lib Dems won it by 228), and despite being the man who campaigned on being the local candidate, but actually doesn't live in the ward.

Now, you servants of Swindon's people, don't disappoint us.

Swindon Tories Get Hooked On Their Own Fantastic Fiction On Swindon Libraries

Swindon's Conservatives may be about to hack at the core of Swindon Libraries, but they're not going to let that get in the way of capitalising on Libraries to win votes at tomorrow's local election.

However, some Tories seem to be having great trouble following their own plot.

Firstly, take a look at a section of two leaflets sent out by Barbara Parry, who's standing for the Conservatives in Covingham & Dorcan. The first leaflet was received about 2 weeks ago, the one below that, just this week :

Reading the first leaflet, you'd be forgiven for thinking if you live in Nythe you were about to get your own new library. Candidate Parry has confused that with a table-top SBC exercise to look into Liden (along with 5 other areas, it's in section 3.45 and 3.46 here) at the range of community facilities they each have (including libraries).

An SBC asset stock-take and a new library are not the same thing, as are these two election leaflets.

Meanwhile in Lydiard & Freshbrook , Councillor Tim Swinyard has gone one better on this election leaflet :

He proclaims that the Link Centre library is safe and even says we'll end up with a "greater variety of locations and provision".

Seems foolish to prejudge the public survey which has just closed, but maybe he knows what's good for us and we don't.

It doesn't stop there!

Over in Wroughton, this section of an election leaflet has also been shoved through doors by Swindon Conservatives :

The leaflet claims only the Adver has said libraries would close or move. But even though this has been admitted in SBC documents if others don't take them over or the funding goes. 

Yet another nonsensical twist.

And finally over in Highworth, they've promised the earth to voters, with 'Facts' and 'Not' and 'Will' (in capitals and underlined and bold and everything) :

Their first 'fact' is incorrect, there is a saving of £300,000 for this budget year sat against the Libraries budget, of which Highworth is funded from. 

Their second and third 'facts' is quite a thing to promise, not to move or close it if SBC push through with the current plan to 2020, look for your parish tax going through the roof to pay for it!

It reads like a reactionary leaflet from an angry resident, but is actually an election leaflet for the same party that have proposed the cuts in the first place.

In short, from Covingham & Dorcan, to Lydiard & Freshbrook, via Wroughton and Highworth, it's clear that Swindon Conservatives haven't got a bloody clue what they're going to do with Swindon Libraries and have twisted themselves in such knots with this plot, they'll be hoping to do a Dallas and wake up to find it's all a dream.

Because at the moment, it looks like a nightmare to the residents and voters of Swindon.