Tag: Swindon

Appearances can be deceiving. I see that, having Swindon Borough Council loaned almost £½M to the company in which it has a 40% stake that is installing wireless internet across Swindon, that company has contracted the installation and maintenance to Swindon Commercial Services. That’s the same Swindon Commercial Services that Swindon Borough Council has recently made into an arm’s length company, and would obviously like it to have a few ‘external’ contracts in its first year of pseudo-independence, to make its finances look rather more rosy. The same Swindon Commercial Services that has amongst its directors one Mr Hunt, who so happens to be chief executive of the wifi company.

Public sector commercial dealings should not only be above board, but should be seen to be above board. The appearance of this deal is rather more incestuous than is seemly.
Hat-tip: magicroundabout.

The local red nest have chosen a candidate to replace Mr Wills — if the electorate are willing, that is. So, for what does Mr Agarwal stand?

As a county councillor for Stanwell & Stanwell Moor in Surrey — of which he has been a lifelong resident —, Mr Agarwal, the self-styled Stanwell’s Voice, has expressed opinions on some topics that will be familiar to people in Swindon. He is, for example, a fan of council-supported wi-fi, unlike his Swindon colleagues.

I am currently working with Council Officers to see if it is possible that Stanwell & Stanwell Moor could have wi-fi access…. As Stanwell residents we could all work where we want to, when we want to, in the park, in the pub, in the garden…. The only city which has already done this is Seattle in America where residents have seen an enhancement to the quality of life.

Not surprisingly, he’s also no fan of blue nest dominated councils.

When you become a one-party local authority, things can get pushed through ‘on the nod’.

Rather like decisions on wifi provision? He supports the government’s national identity card scheme, which will win him no favours with Swindon’s No2ID campaigners.

He is also, apparently, committed to serving his local community in Stanwell and the Moor…

As someone brought up in Stanwell since infancy I am committed to serving my community and fellow residents.

Though obviously not quite as committed as he once was.

Some, such as Mr Montaut are taking the will of the people of North Swindon for granted.

This is a Labour town, and this is our seat.

Just what parts of ‘marginal constituency’ and ‘Conservative controlled council’ has Mr Montaut not understood? Mr Agarwal has managed to survive as Surrey’s only Labour county councillor by placing great emphasis on his long-term residence in the area. He can’t do that here; his main opponent can.

Councillors’ attendance rates continued to improve in 2009. This is the third year I’ve trawled through the record of meeting attendance for Swindon Borough Councillors. It’s pleasing to see an upward trend. On average across all councillors the attendance rate was 85% in 2009, up from 80% in 2008 and 77% in 2007.

In terms of attendance rates, the top five councillors of 2009 were:

• Mr Montaut: 26 meetings out of 26 – 100%
• Mr Morton: 20 meetings out of 20 – 100%
• Mr Ford: 12 meetings out of 12 – 100%
• Mr Perkins: 35 meetings out of 36 – 97%
• Mr Short: 31 meetings out of 32 – 97%

Another 22 councillors attended over 90% of the meetings they were recorded against, a big improvement on last year. Three of these attended over 50 recorded meetings during the year.

The councillors with the worst attendance rates in 2009 were:

• Mr Fanning: 24 meetings out of 39 – 62%
• Mr Holland: 20 meetings out of 33 – 61%
• Mr Wiltshire: 17 meetings out of 29 – 59%
• Mr Dobie: 5 meetings out of 9 – 56%
• Mr Sammels: 5 meetings out of 11 – 45%

There has been some improvement in the low-attendance tail. In 2008, 5 councillors in post at the year end had attendance rates of 60% or less and another 6 had rates of 70% or less. In 2009, that improved to just 3 attending 60% or less of their meetings and another 7 attending 70% or less. In 2009, for the first time in three years, no councillor attended less than 40% of their recorded meetings, though Mr Sammels’ previously good attendance record has taken a tumble and is now well adrift from others.

The figures are derived by taking an entry in a meeting attendance page of ‘Present’ or ‘In attendance’ as meaning the councillor was there, and any other entry as meaning that they should have been there but weren’t. Full details of all Swindon Borough Councillors’ 2009 meeting attendance rates are available in the archive.

Credit where it’s due, although Swindon may not have had the 6 to 12 inches of snow that some were forecasting, the council workers have done an excellent job of keeping the main streets relatively clear of snow. Many pavements in central Swindon had also received a good dose of salt — unlike last year — and most urban bus services were running.

Those responsible for running Swindon’s schools have a lot to learn from the town’s businesses and other public services.

In the interests of getting some much needed clarity on the extent of Swindon Borough Council’s support for the company planning to provide boroughwide wireless internet to Swindon, I’ve made some enquiries to the Council. This is a summary of their answers to my questions.

• The council’s 40% shareholding was obtained at nil cost, i.e. it did not cost anything in addition to the £450,000 provided as a loan.
• The decision to provide the loan was made by the Director of Finance (Mr McKellar), the Director of Law and Democratic Services (Mr Taylor) and the Group Director Business Transformation (Mr Patel).
• “[R]egarding support of planning applications for transmitters… no special or preferential treatment is being extended to Digital City UK Ltd regarding this matter. They are subject to the same process and regulations as any other company.”
• The offices provided to the company rent free in the David Murray John Tower had been vacant.
• “In terms of making the space fit for use… no additional cost has been incurred as a result of Digital City’s occupation.”

From those answers it appears that £450,000 is the limit of the council’s expenditure, so far, on this speculative venture.

It’s difficult to understand how the management at the Great Western Hospital managed to get their plans for providing a staff bus service so wrong. Just three weeks ago, they were effusive about the likely level of usage.

The service will be up and running by January 4 and after speaking to staff about the plans, many have said it is a service they will be glad to use… staff would find it more convenient as many have to pass Honda to get here anyway.

Now the £30,000 scheme that was intended to free-up 200 parking spaces has been shelved for lack of interest. Now I’m sure that the hospital management know where their staff live, but if most of their staff pass the Honda site on the way to work that suggests that either the hospital is staffed almost exclusively by residents of Highworth or that staff from around Swindon like to take a tour of Stratton on the way to work.

For much of the twentieth century, many large employers ran staff buses. Surely it’s not that difficult to get right?

The developers of Wichelstowe would like prospective house buyers to believe the area doesn’t have a drainage problem. I’m not convinced….

One thing that seems to be absent in Swindon’s free wi-fi fiasco is due diligence. Mr Bluh would have us believe that due diligence occurred before Swindon Borough Council loaned a start-up company £450,000 of our money to provide ‘free’ wireless internet across the borough.

As for whether due diligence was followed, of course we looked at the risks and exposure of the investment. There is absolutely no requirement for us to seek third party independent advice. We have successfully concluded many multi-million deals and transactions and, as a result, have built up a high level of legal, commercial and technical expertise.

Others disagree. Evidence of due diligence is certainly hard to find. The published advice given to Mr Bluh and Mr Edwards is limited. The advice stated that the company was more likely to pay the council’s loan back late than to completely default. It also stated that the likelihood of the council getting a return on its shareholding was strongly dependent on the company’s marketing campaign, yet at the time the company did not have a formal marketing plan. Just how weak would a business proposition have to be for these two councillors not to squander our money on it? This is also the council’s first public/private venture, according to an article in the council’s own newspaper. So the expertise available in the council is more limited than than is being suggested.

Mr Bluh would also have us believe that this £450,000 could not be used for other purposes.

The money invested in Digital City cannot be used to plug a gap in our budget or operating services, it forms part of a sum we would normally invest in order to get a better return for the council.

Just how naïve does he think we are? Transferring money from reserves is commonplace amongst councils when times are tough, as shown in Swindon Borough Council’s own accounts.

Theres also the matter of whether this boroughwide wifi service should have been put out to tender, as a procurement exercise. The Swindon branch of the Federation of Small Businesses believe so, and that the council is disadvantaging local businesses. Once again, Mr Bluh would have us believe differently.

We have been looking at providing free Wi-Fi for the last three years as part of ‘Swindon’s Digital Challenge Proposal’ and it is only recently we have been approached by Digital City UK who had a technical partnership with aQovia. They came to us because they wanted to set up services to sell in Swindon and we invested in them, so we have not disadvantaged any other businesses in Swindon.

But if it was part of the council’s policy to provide such services would they not have eventually offered a contract to supply these services if this offer hadn’t been made? And isn’t Mr Hunt — as chair of one of the council’s bureaucracies, the Swindon Strategic Economic Partnership, and a board member of several others (SSP, TNSC & SCS) — someone with rather better access to the council cabinet than most? This is not some unconnected company coming along with a commercial proposition: Mr Hunt and the council have been closely connected for many years. And as a consequence of that we, the Swindon taxpayers, seem to have been landed with a deal with far less financial security than a properly procured service would provided.

It’s not enough for the process to be, as Mr Bluh regards it, not only above board but robust. It also needs to be seen to be above board. At the moment, all that can be seen is a fog of secrecy and spin, mixed with smoke from taxpayer’s money burning.

It now seems that there’s more than just the marketing plan that’s been forgotten by the company setting up ‘free’ borough-wide wireless internet in Swindon at our expense. From the latest comment by Mr Hunt it’s obvious that even the plans for setting up the wi-fi are vague.

It won’t be fully functional in Highworth until probably about January 15. After that we will have a better idea.

Probably about? Just what sort of commercial delivery plan is as vague as that for a deadline just three working weeks away? This also suggests that last week’s ‘launch’ of the wifi service in Highworth was a sham and nothing more than a publicity stunt.

For a project that’s costing us almost £½M, I expect something far more robustly planned and thought through than this. I expected our council leaders to have demanded such robustness too, before they used our money for this speculative investment.

The recent announcement by Thamesdown Transport (which was regurgitated almost verbatim by Swindonweb) seems to have missed the wider uses for on-bus announcements of the next stop. One of the passengers that they have used in the press release, Mr Trevennen, is rather more aware.

It’s not just the visually impaired who benefit but passengers who are new to the town or are visiting.

The system has been introduced on what the company calls ‘six key routes’: the 1 & 1A to West Swindon, 2 to Covingham, 13 & 14 to Eldene and Haydon Wick and 17 between Penhill and Park North. Except for the short hop between the railway station and the Outlet Centre these are probably not services used by many visitors to Swindon. Route 16 to the hospital might be a better choice, or some of the rural routes, such as the 47 to Lambourn with onward connection to Newbury, or the 48 & 48A to Marlborough. Or to benefit those new to the town, why not service 18 to Priory Vale or 11 to Wichelstowe?

Perhaps Thamesdown Transport should listen more to its passengers.