komadori’s green corner

With less than three weeks to go until the local elections on 6 May, campaigning by the candidates in Central ward is distinctly lacking. Even the local blue nest website carries a paltry amount of information on their candidates. So far only Mr Wright of Western ward has been leafleting. Of the known local (i.e. resident in Central ward) candidates, official information on Mr Leakey is limited — Ms Leakey has told us more — and neither Mr Evans nor Mr Cox have yet had anything to say — though you can still read Mr Evans’ views from three yeas ago.

Of the other less local candidates, Mr Chadfield of Eastcott Ward has said nothing. Ms Spencer, also of Eastcott Ward, has been presented rather more eloquently, but nevertheless is largely uninformative.

So of those that have expressed an opinion, what do we know of their future intentions. Mr Leakey wants more investment.

If elected, Kevin’s priority will be to improve investment in the residential areas of Central Swindon. He wants to offer people a fresh start, as a new Councillor who lives and works in the Town Centre and actually cares about it.

So, apparently, does Ms Spencer, as well as changes to residents’ parking.

Kathryn wants to be involved with the proposed regeneration of the town centre and working with local business as investment will have tangible benefits for those in Swindon Central. Kathryn also puts reform of the failed residents parking scheme at the top of her agenda.

And Mr Wright, well he has rather a long list.

Resident priorities I am working on include: Return Residents Parking back to residents control; Protect Urban spaces and gardens; Reduce Centrals Residential roads down to 20MPH; Ensure local accountability and fair charging for council services; Press for more Central School places for Central children; Work for a sustainable solution for the Mechanics Institute; Correct the Tories mistakes on Street Cleaning and Waste.

All worthy stuff. It’s just rather a shame that all bar one haven’t made much effort yet to tell us more.

I’m sure that Mr Bluh will claim that the uncritical report by Swindon Borough Council’s internal auditor is an unadulterated vindication of the way the council has spent almost £½M of our money on a loan to Digital City (UK) Ltd for wireless internet. I’m equally sure that Mr Bluh will claim that the absence of any investigation yet by the District Auditor shows that he has no concerns either. However, as Mr Bluh likes to tell us, ‘language is important’, so let’s look at exactly what the council’s internal audit report into wifi says.

The remit of the internal auditor’s report is quite narrow. It addresses six specific issues set by the chair of the council’s audit committee, Mr Dickinson.

• The arrangements regarding the security of the Council’s investment including assessment of credit worthiness of Digital City (UK) Ltd.
• Whether the Council has complied with its own Treasury Management policy and the best practice set out by CIPFA.
• What profit-sharing arrangements are in place.
• Whether EU directives have been breached in particular Article 87.
• Whether value for money can be demonstrated.
• What, if any, lessons can be learned for the future.

That means there are some significant omissions, as noted in the report.

Since the commencement of the investigation a number of further concerns have been raised in two letters and an e-mail addressed to the Council’s External Auditors…. At the meeting on 15th March 2010, the Council’s Scrutiny Committee raised concerns regarding the possible conflict in interests of the Group Director: Business Transformation who was listed as a Director of Digital (UK) Ltd and the author of the Cabinet report requesting release of the second phase of the loan…. The internal audit investigation has not covered the additional areas of concern mentioned in the correspondence to the External Auditor, or the issues raised at Scrutiny.

The scope also specifically excluded ‘whether due process has been followed as this has already been examined by the Scrutiny Committee who confirmed that it had.’ The report is also unusual in that it includes a disclaimer.

This investigation focussed on the areas agreed in the terms of reference for the investigation only. It did not include a full internal audit of all Council systems mentioned in the areas of concern nor did it include a full review of the adequacy, or robustness, of the documents listed in Appendix 3. Any recommendations relating to Council policy and procedure generally which arise from the findings of this review will be addressed in a separate internal audit report.

Clearly, there’s far more that could have been investigated, but wasn’t. And not only is it not a full audit, but any recommendations that have resulted from it are to be hidden away in a separate later report which Mr Bluh will no doubt hope appears after the present furore has passed.

Let’s also look at what the District Auditor has said.

The External Auditor (Martin Robinson — District Auditor) has confirmed to the Chief Executive that there is nothing contained in the correspondence that requires investigation by him at this stage.

That doesn’t mean he will not investigate. Indeed, correspondence from the District Auditor that komadori has seen indicates that he might.

You will be aware that the council’s Internal Auditors are currently reviewing various aspects of this issue. I am awaiting the outcomes of their review before giving the matter my own consideration as a prelude to deciding whether there are any aspects of it that I would wish to pursue any further…. I therefore hope to be able to respond more fully to the issues raised… by mid-May.

The scrutiny of Swindon Borough Council’s wi-fi deal is not yet over. Far from having a clean bill of health, it remains under close clinical supervision.

’Tis amazing sometimes just how tenuous are the causes for complaint put forward by nimbies. For those living near a large car assembly plant, you’d think that distractions from a couple of wind turbines would be the least of their concerns. Apparently not. South Marston parish council are worried about strobed sunsets.

We’re concerned because it’ll be situated to the west of the village which means when the sun sets there may be a sort of strobe effect as the turbines go round.

Perhaps if the sun always set at the same point on the horizon, regardless of the season, it might be a legitimate concern. If clear sunsets on a windy day were a common occurrence, perhaps I’d have a little more sympathy for the potential mind-blowing effects of a dazzling stroboscopic display. Perhaps.

Mr McEwen, the chair of South Marston parish council, is also worried about noise from the turbines.

Also, we understand that there are noise issues which are currently being checked out and I’ll be very interested to see the reports on how those issues are going to affect people.

Perhaps he’d also considering campaigning against leaves on trees that rustle in the breeze.

Today Mr Wakefield has been reported as supporting the government’s representative in South Swindon, Ms Snelgrove.

Anne asked me to come along today, not to endorse her in the traditional way, but in recognition of the fact that Anne as been a very good constituency MP for Swindon.

But he’s also been reported as helping her opponent Mr Buckland with canvassing.

Thanks to Steve Wakefield for giving me a hand with canvassing today.

Even though he somewhat disputes that, it’s refreshing to see Mr Wakefield taking such an independent, non-partisan approach. Whether Ms Snelgrove will find the ambivalence of one of the two star exhibits at her campaign launch so refreshing is another matter.

One thing puzzles komadori in Ms Snelgrove’s plea for re-election.

We moved to Swindon in 2004 and my husband Mike and I live in the centre of town. Mike teaches English at Cirencester Sixth Form College and has taught many Swindon students.

Information komadori has from late that year suggests an address west of Stroud in Gloucestershire, rather than central Swindon.

This year’s election in Swindon’s Central ward has one unusual feature for recent years: a councillor seeking re-election. Recent turncoat councillors have done a runner from Central when the time has come to seek another term. Today I have thus received the novelty of a leaflet from a councillor not only seeking re-election based on their track record as a councillor for Central ward, but also still in the same party for which they were last elected. Unfortunately for Mr Wright he’s little of note to shout about.

In addition to striking a traditional politician pose, pointing at something he’s done nothing about (a pothole in this instance), Mr Wright lists several things he claims to have either helped, opposed or campaigned for. But not just him, oh no.

Over the past 4 years I have worked closely with Anne Snelgrove and my colleagues on the council in delivering for the residents of Central.

Mr Wright may well have fought for Central — tho’ there’s little evidence of him putting up much of a fight; half of what he lists were failures — but the government’s representative in South Swindon, Ms Snelgrove, certainly has not and her recent interest in wifi doesn’t make up for four years of non-interest.

If Mr Wright has done all that he claims, the results of his efforts are all but invisible. He’s had some success in stopping things; he’s been far less noticeable when it comes to getting things done.

At a tempestuous meeting this evening of Swindon Borough Council’s Scrutiny Committee — which at one point became a Tomlinson versus Tomlinson debate — it was agreed to defer a decision on the council’s loan to wi-fi company Digital City (UK) Ltd to the next meeting of the committee.

The committee agreed to a proposal by Mr Tomlinson (with amendments from Mr Moffatt) to defer a decision, pending clarification as to just who are the directors of Digital City (UK) Ltd — because Companies House records still show the only director as Rikki Hunt — and an investigation as to the providence of the investments in Digital City (UK) Ltd — because Companies House records show one of the shareholders to be Isle of Man registered aQovia Limited rather than UK registered aQovia UK Ltd. The main (90%) shareholder in aQovia Limited being Sara Kilduff whose main business is, apparently, a ‘virtual PA’.

The meeting also added to the catalogue of what in Mr Bluh’s view are ‘minor errors’; namely that entering an Isle of Man company — with full address — as a shareholder of Digital City (UK) Ltd rather than a UK one was just a matter of missing out the ‘UK’. Quite how this can be viewed as minor when the shareholder agreement underpinning the loan is with aQovia UK Ltd rather than the registered shareholder is something only Mr Bluh seems to ‘understand’. We were also asked to believe that not knowing who the registered directors are does not matter because the company has not made any ‘strategic decisions’. Seemingly, being eight months behind the original project plan and asking for variation of loan conditions are not strategic decisions.

Quite why Mr Bluh still has confidence in this ‘partnership’ is a mystery, especially as every time the company that constitutes the partnership makes a mistake, Mr Bluh refutes all responsibility. Why he expects any member of the public to have confidence in it is an even greater mystery.

Forget politics. For Swindon, this wasn’t the day a General Election was called; it was the day that the scaffolding-clad façade of the BHS store fell down. With nobody hurt, it’s likely to be one of the less significant diversions that political campaigners in Swindon face over the coming month.

It’s a long time since the jokers at the Swindon Community Safety Partnership have given us anything to laugh about, but now they’re back to their old habits. A bit of advice I was given many years ago — not by the Swindon Community Safety Partnership — was that one should always be cautious about using a mobile phone in a public place, particularly so in those locations, such as the entertainment zone of a town centre, where the risk of theft is high. Alas, it seems that the Swindon Community Safety Partnership may be about to encourage behaviour that’ll lead to a wave of mobile phone thefts. The partnership is going to send messages via bluetooth to clubbers’ mobile phones, giving them safety advice.

Bluetooth is a great, cost-effective way to reach lots of people with relevant bite-size community safety messages…. [I]t will be used selectively to support key awareness campaigns… and people can opt to decline messages, although we’d urge them to pick up the free advice.

I wonder if that advice will include ‘Keep you mobile phone out of sight when in an unsafe crowded area.’

From lollipops to messaging, the record of the Swindon Community Safety Partnership in dealing with Friday night revellers is consistently daft.

That was Mr Bluh’s oft repeated refrain to Mr Montaut during the debate at last night’s special meeting of Swindon Borough Council’s cabinet. But rather than using the phrase ‘language is important’ to attack Mr Montaut, Mr Bluh should reflect on how the meaning of language has been distorted in the record of the council’s actions relating to the wifi deal. There were many new meanings that we learnt for simple phrases at the council meeting last night.

• When in a report presented to the meeting it said “The delay in having a fully operational ‘back-office’ customer care and billing operation has hindered opportunities to sell.” it actually meant the back-office software was ready, but the company never intended to start selling before it did.
• Where Mr Patel wrote on his LinkedIn profile “Board Director Digital City (UK) Ltd” he actually meant “SBC observer on Board of Digital City”.
• When Mr Jones, the council’s chief executive, wrote in a letter to Ms Snelgrove on 26 January “we have a director on the board” what he actually meant was “we have a director position on the board but have not filled it yet”.
• By analogy, where in the appendix to the minutes of the 14 December 2009 meeting of the Scrutiny Committee it states “The Council has one Director representing its interests on the Digital City Board.” it also meant “we don’t yet have a director on the board”.
• When Mr Bluh said to the Special Committee at its 25 March meeting “This is a loan repayable with interest at above commercial rate” what he should have said was “This is a loan repayable at a commercial rate”.

With a record like that of saying one thing but meaning another, it’s little wonder that the scrutiny of this deal continues.

Whilst looking through the current crop of planning applications, having perused the application to build 210 houses near Lydiard Park which is causing some concern locally, my attention was drawn to a somewhat more remote application. In fact not just remote, but positively out-of-the-way.

Comwood (London) Ltd have applied to build twenty affordable houses at Langton Park. That’s up the hill from Wroughton, near to one of the side entrances to Wroughton Airfield. It’s quite some hill and for pedestrians or pedal cyclists the climb from Wroughton is not for the faint hearted — fine if you’re reasonably healthy, but not otherwise. Naturally, the architects take a rather more positive view of things.

The guidance document also outlines that cycling can replace car trips up to 5km. The proposed development site offers good cycle links to local amenities and employment in Wroughton. Footways are present along most lengths of the private roads surrounding the site, although there are no signed cycle routes. However, the roads are relatively wide and are lightly trafficked, which is ideal for pedestrians and cyclists.

So that’s not specifically a cycle link at all, just an ordinary road. And the roads are only ‘relatively wide and lightly trafficked’ within the Thorney Park, Langton Park and Alexandra Park areas. Head towards Wroughton from Thorney Park or Langton Park and the roads are much narrower and without footways.

The nearest post office (Wroughton Sub-Post Office) being some 2.3km (1.4 miles) distant, can be reached in approximately 12 minutes, assuming a cycling speed of 12km (7.5mph)…. Account has also to be been taken of the topography, which is downhill heading towards Wroughton. The topography may or may not dissuade some potential cycle users.

May or may not dissuade? As an occasional recreational cycle ride, fine. As a regular commute to the ‘employment in Wroughton’, a hard slog up Prior’s Hill is not what I’d want after a hard day’s work. Correspondence on the application suggests that Swindon Borough Council’s planning department are no more convinced than I am.

Both the Langton Park and Grange Park proposed developments are outwith the boundaries specified in planning policy for development. Sadly, the developers’ inventiveness in reinterpreting those policies knows no such bounds.