Labour Got Its Sums Wrong Over STEAM

STEAM should be a valuable asset to Swindon. Labour’s lack of financial acumen and poor commercial awareness turned it into an expensive white elephant.  Under Labour, STEAM lost vast amounts of public money and failed to attract public support.  Labour’s mismanagement of STEAM typifies their approach to running the council.  Labour combined poor decision-making, bad financial management and layers of bureaucracy to make STEAM ineffective, inefficient, and a drain on the public purse. 

Labour based the operational budget for STEAM on flawed figures.  Last year Labour budgeted for 200,000 visitors to STEAM, but only 99,500 materialised.  This year Labour budgeted for 152,000 visitors, but projections suggest that visitor numbers will not reach 100,000.  As a result, this year STEAM will swallow up £500,000 in taxpayers’ subsidies – enough to recruit around 25 teachers for our stretched schools.

The Conservatives support STEAM because it preserves and celebrates Swindon’s rich heritage, provides excellent educational resources, and attracts visitors to the town.  However, we must make the museum financially viable.  The Conservatives want to reverse Labour’s blinkered use of public-subsidies to prop-up failing services.  We will re-brand STEAM, market it more aggressively, and maximise its commercial potential.  Conservative Leader, Mike Bawden, said: “When a business is failing, what does it do?  It re-brands itself and re-launches.  I think that is what we should with STEAM.” 

The Conservatives have commissioned reports on the future of STEAM, and are looking at options to reduce operating costs and expand commercial activities.  A longer-term solution might be to create a charitable ‘heritage trust’ to run our museums.  Charitable trusts have lower operating costs and can attract additional funding that is not available to councils.  They shift operational responsibility from the council to a board of trustees and so minimise political interference.  This approach would safeguard and enhance our museums and heritage, and protect them from Labour’s policy failures.