New era at borough council

The result of the local elections at the beginning of May saw Swindon Borough Council change political hands for the first time since the Conservatives gained control in June of 2004. The turnout was 35 percent.

Labour now has 33 seats, the Conservatives 22 and the Liberal Democrats one. Leader David Renard lost his Haydon Wick seat and Labour Group leader Cllr Jim Robbins became council leader. Former deputy leader Cllr Gary Sumner became Conservative leader. Here Cllrs Robbins and Sumner reveal their plans.

Council leader pledges a better Swindon open to fresh ideas

A column by Swindon Borough Council Leader Jim Robbins

I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who supported Labour in the recent local elections.

It was humbling to receive such incredible support and we achieved one of the most decisive results in Swindon’s history, winning 16 of the 19 seats up for grabs.

We know that we have a huge job to do to overcome the mess left by the last administration and build the better Swindon that we promised, and we are determined to do so.

I’m overwhelmed by the amazing messages of support and congratulations, and certainly noticed a theme in them – ‘You’ve got your work cut out!’

We know that we won’t be able to do everything that we want to do straight away, but we are keen to make some early changes that we hope will improve the town and demonstrate the direction we want to travel in.

The first change we have made is to some of the internal committees in the council. We have got rid of some overview committees which appeared to be talking shops and replaced them with three delivery committees focused on developing policy in three key areas.

These are Combating Inequality, Building a Better Swindon and Achieving Net Zero, our three over arching missions which are the three areas we want to really focus on.

We want to make sure that everyone in Swindon reaches their potential, make sure that we have the buildings and infrastructure necessary for the next 30 years and ensure that Swindon more than plays its part in fighting climate change and ensuring we have a sustainable future.

We know that, whilst the Labour team have plenty of big ideas to transform the town, we don’t have the monopoly on good ideas, and we invite all residents to feed into these groups.

Finally, the Labour group were stunned and very sad to hear the news of the death of one of our councillors, Pam Adams of St Margaret & South Marston ward.

Her death was very sudden, and I had been speaking to her in the days beforehand planning her role in the new administration.

We all send our best wishes to her family and friends. She was a big figure in the Labour group, as well as being a much-loved former teacher in the town. I know that many pupils from Churchfields, now Lawn Manor Academy, used to stop her to let her know how they were getting on and introducing her to their children and grandchildren.

New Conservative Group leader Gary Sumner will promote town

I am now the Leader of the Opposition on Swindon Borough Council.

It will be a difficult few years ahead, but the Conservatives will hold Labour councillors to deliver on the promises they made during the election.

As Deputy Leader of the council, I spent several years holding public meetings with residents about how Swindon grows over the next 15 years.

I insisted on infrastructure before housing, and I have not always been popular because of this.

I headed up the delivery of £200m of road upgrades and left Swindon in a better place to accommodate new homes and businesses.

I supported Amazon, £400m of investment and 2,000 jobs.

I championed the redevelopment of the Honda site which will bring 12,000 jobs to Swindon, more than when Honda was open. A £700m investment and a £1.2bn boost to Swindon over 10 years.

We had many make or break meetings, but the Conservatives got it over the line.

The town centre has £100 million in projects to lift the value of the town centre and unlock sites for redevelopment.

This has been successful, with residential sites agreed at Kimmerfields, First Investments spending £7.5m on the former Tricentre to create new Grade A offices, and the new Zurich headquarters - a £38m office building which is statement of support in our town, and an income investment for SBC, bringing in much needed profit to the council’s budget.

I will always be positivealways promoting Swindonalways with an open door.