Page 4 - link magazine

4 The Link Magazine - February 2003
How is the council getting

Last month's Link gave an account of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment of Swindon, the Audit Commission's
improvement being rated poor. We've asked the leaders of each political party on the council to describe

Kevin Small, leader of the council's priorities. So far the proc- Mike Bawden, Leader of the
Labour Group and leader of ess has shown clearly that you do Conservative Group
the council want continued improvements to For Swindon the Audit Commis-
Following the article in the Janu- the education service provided for sion's conclusions were dreadful.
ary Link, I would like to take this your children and the support pro- From a total of 150 county councils
opportunity to respond on a few vided by the Social Services de- and unitary authorities, Swindon
key points. The Audit Commis- partment that is vital for so many was placed in the bottom 13: 'The
sion report raised issues that as a people. services provided by Swindon council
council we have not backed away You also want improvements to were found to be poor with little hope
from. your local environment, such as for improvement.'
Since becoming leader in Au- cleaner streets and we are taking The inspectors considered coun-
gust 2002I have not used my posi- those views seriously whilst we cils such as Wigan and Warrington
tion to blame other political par- are looking at the budget for 2003 / to be far superior to Swindon.
ties for these problems but have 04. We all want improvements for How did the council get into this
consistently given a strong mes- s . our local community but further mess?
sage that co-operation between all investment is needed to deliver Swindon's failing services result
politicians is the way forward. these changes. from twenty years of Labour party
Political points can still be scored there is a 'back-room' team and I was disappointed to see that a control. Labour administration has
but there is an appropriate time part of the improvement plan does small number of opposition coun- fostered a culture of poor service
and place to do this and the qual- look at addressing the Audit Com- cillors stated at the council meet- provision that
ity of individual council services mission's view that there is cur- ing of 9 January 2003 that they has been hid-
should not be used for this pur- rently not enough corporate would "very reluctantly and with den behind a
pose. strength to support our services. a heavy heart" support the im- public rela-
The Improvement Plan for the However, the Labour adminis- provement plan. tions smoke
council was accepted and agreed tration has an ongoing commit- This plan is key to delivering screen. Prom- — 9
by all members at the last meeting ment to Education, Social Services improvements in services as iden- ises of new
of council early in January. There and improving the local environ- tified by the Audit Commission football stadi-
are aspects of the plan that will not ment for all residents. and us. It is a plan that will change ums, central
be popular with all councillors or As well as working to deliver over time and should be constantly libraries, city
residents, but they are all neces- the aims of the improvement plan, monitored and challenged to en- status, etc.
sary goals to improve overall serv- we have also recently been con- sure that it is delivering the changes have been used to hide failures in
ice delivery. However, for each sulting with residents to determine we need. I and my colleagues in fundamental services such as edu-
front line service that is delivered, their views on what should be the the Labour Group emphatically cation (where several secondary
support the improvement plan and schools have been placed in spe-
are committed to its aims and de- cial measures).
livery of them. The media hype is exemplified
by Swindon's campaign for city
All to play for in May status. In 1999 and 2001 Labour
The council is made up of 28 La- leader Sue Bates went to London
bour councillors. 22 Conservative, to demand city status for a town
8 Liberal Democrats, with one seat with failing schools and inad-
X vacated by a Labour councillor to equate care for the elderly.
be contested on 30 January. Since 1997, when it became a
Twenty seats across the borough unitary authority, the Labour
will be up for election on Thursday council has mismanaged the huge
1 May. responsibilities of Education and

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