Transport rating puts Swindon at bottom (Swindon Liberal Democrats)

Swindon Liberal Democrats <info@swindonlibdems.org>

Transport rating puts Swindon at bottom

January 24, 2005 12:00 AM

Bus, cars and cyclist in traffic Liberal Democrats have called on the Tory-run Council to wake up and improve the Council's ratings in Public Transport. A recent league table places Swindon at the bottom of the pile, following an inspection.

Cllr Stan Pajak, Lib Dem Transport Spokesperson (Lib Dem, Eastcott) commented:

"This Tory council is stumbling from one failure to the next. Its now getting to the stage that admitting you are a member of Tory-run Swindon Borough Council is something to be ashamed of. The Tories incompetence in Transport, as in so many of its services, is regarded as poor, weak or just simply useless."

An inspection of Transport provision by Government Offices lists Annual Progress Reports in the areas of delivery of schemes on the ground; progress towards targets and objectives and effective spending of budgets.

Cllr Pajak continued:

"The Council's score in 2004 was labelled WEAK with a score of 36% of targets met. This compares to a score of 65% in 2003 and a score of 82% in 2001. Year on year the Tories are taking this council down the road as the worst Local Authority in the land when it comes to comparison with other councils.

"The most troubling statistic in this report is that Swindon is rated the worst council inspected in the whole country. We came 85th out of 85 local authorities."

The Conservatives are consulting on budget cuts to front-line services in the following four areas of Transport facilities:

1. Reduce Bus Company subsidy by £100,000

2. Stop free parking for disabled badge holders in three of the boroughs car parks - save £40,000

3. Reducing support to three so called 'uneconomic' bus routes - save £38,000

4. Not funding the full contract inflation in highway maintenance - save £24,000

The Government Office of the South West gave the Borough Council a damning analysis of its competence: 'we are very disappointed that you have only delivered half of your scheme types as planned. Your explanations for divergences and plans to get back on track lack detailed information on causes and solutions. We therefore have little confidence that you have the capacity to deliver your planned programme in the future. You have spent 75% of your planned programme in 2003/04. Explanations for this imply that you do not have the capacity to spend what you are given.'

Failures from Tory-run Swindon Borough Council include:

Delay in building Commonhead Park & Ride
Failure to apply for IT systems grants
Failure to apply for grants to assist road maintenance
Tory Councillors investing all their energy to remove road-humps in Covingham, and placing a halt on any new schemes within the Borough for a year Jan 2004
Tory failure to support Borough Cycle Schemes, leading to drop off in school usage Sept 2002
Reductions in primary and secondary pupils walking, cycling or travelling by bus to school due to "bad weather"