‘I’ve become part of the furniture’ - MP Robert Buckland

South Swindon MP Robert Buckland has become an established part of the Swindon political landscape in the six years since he was elected.

Working from his ‘cosy’ office in Wood Street, the walls lined with the work of local artists, Mr Buckland relishes his role as a constituency MP.  For all its challenges and the huge workload involved, it is this key part of his role that he says brings him the most satisfaction - the aspect where he feels he can make the most impact on the lives of those living in his constituency.

“I do have a good relationship with most people in Swindon. I’ve been in this position so long that I get people recognising me in the street all the time. I suppose I have become part of the furniture now. That is the part of the job that I enjoy the most. We have a small team and we have a large workload.

Since 2010, we have had 16,000 items of casework. We try to cover as many of these as we can - I’m lucky to have such a good team that helps me do that.

“Swindon’s a microcosm of the rest of the country, within my constituency you have rural areas and other parts of Swindon which share many of the features of inner city areas. The range of case work that I get presented with reflects that diversity. There’s never a dull moment.”

Turning to the recent broadside levelled at Swindon’s primary and secondary schools by South West regional director of Ofsted, Bradley Simmons, Mr Buckland agreed that the blanket criticism was ‘not helpful’ whilst recognising that there were some key issues that needed to be addressed.

Responding to concerns by teachers over funding allocated to pupils in Swindon, which is significantly lower that other similar areas, Mr Buckland said: “We have seen an increase of £150 for pupil premium payments and I am aware that this is something that the Secretary of State is looking at closely.

“It is important to pull together as an educational community. The letter from Mr Simmons failed to acknowledge a lot of good work that is going on in our schools. For example, Dorcan have just had their best results in three years, so we are going in the right direction. A lot of this work has been going on already before Mr Simmons sent that letter out. I live in the community and I’m a parent. I visit schools all the time and most of the time the atmosphere is appropriate. We should use these criticisms as a platform to build on.

“We stand ready to help these schools. It’s about getting it right. This is not about party politics.”

Turning to the decision by Swindon Borough Council to close 10 libraries in the town, Mr Buckland was keen to highlight the efforts made by campaigners to ensure that Parks library was included in the core provision raising the number from four libraries to five.

“The Parks Library is vital for that area of Swindon. It is essential for job seekers and provides a wider community role in this area where there is a lot of social deprivation.

We have been working hard to see if we can maintain the network, by looking at partnership approaches. There is a lot of work going on to bring people together, we shall see what the new year brings.”

Robert can be contacted on 01793 533 393, or via email:

[email protected]