Problems Are Fault Of Labour Council - Letters

Evening Advertiser Letters Page 05/09/02

Much has been written about the new administration of Swindon Borough Council and the wish of its new leader for co-operation between the political parties.

So much is this the case that one might be led to suppose that the council's damning Ofsted report, poor Social Services report, poor housing report and poor performance assessment were all the result of this lack of co-operation.

In fact nothing could be further from the truth, and it should be made absolutely clear that these failures are the fruits of 23 years of Labour administrations, and for over 20 of those years Labour enjoyed an overwhelming majority on Swindon's Councils.

Now that there is a hung council, the Conservatives and Lib Dems have a greater opportunity to influence council policy, but the fact remains that the Labour Party are still the largest single group on the council, and can only be defeated by Conservatives and Lib Dems voting together. Such occasions will tend to be over essentially non-political issues, as there remains a considerable gulf between the philosophies of the three parties over many issues, not least as to how the council's money is spent.

It is for the Labour Administration to dig themselves out of the mess that has resulted from 23 years of their mismanage-ment.

Conservative councillors will support those measures which they consider to be in the best interests of the town. But while they remain the largest political group it will be for the Labour party to correct the errors that have resulted from 23 years of their misjudgements.

Councillor Owen Lister

Evening Advertiser Letters Page 28/08/02

Recently there have been a number of letters in the Evening Advertiser regarding the responsibility of councillors for the situation in which Swindon Borough Council currently finds itself. Many of the correspondents seemed to have overlooked the fact that just like any other local authority in the UK, Swindon Borough Council operates on democratic principles, which means that the political party with the largest number of elected members will generally form the Administration. It is thus the party with the largest number of elected members that determines Council policy.

For some 20 years Swindon has had a Council with an overwhelming Labour majority and it must therefore accept the responsibility for the policies which the Council pursued. In 2000 there was a dramatic change when 23 Conservative Councillors were elected which led to a hung Council, with no single Party having overall control. If the 8 Lib.Dem. members voted with the Conservatives they could outvote the Labour group by 31 votes to 28, but if they voted with the Labour group then that coalition would win by 36 votes to 23. As a result of the May 2002 elections and a defection from the Conservative ranks, there was a slight change in the arithmetic, but Swindon Borough Council remained a hung council.

In some situations there is little dissension between the Parties, and common sense is allowed to dictate the way forward, but over many major issues there are fundamental differences which are not easily resolved with a hung council. Your correspondents should not blame Councillors for adhering to the fundamental principles on which they stood for election, that is after all one of the bases of democracy.

The fact is therefore, that the Labour Party have had absolute control of the Council for some 20 years, but in the past 2 years there has been a hung  council in which the largest Party has been the Labour Party, who have had to tackle the problems that have surfaced in the past 12 months or so, problems that have been of their own making. There should be no difficulty in seeing where the responsibility lies.

Councillor Owen Lister
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