Ask Away...

[Reg Smeeton]

As you're also lead Councillor for Swindon Services....do you think the fiasco over recycling and refuse ( the streets around me are curently festooned with bright orange boxes in various states of disarray) is a resigning offence?

 Are you prepared to resign from the council if the CG redevelopment goes tits up and leads to the death of the football club?

Overall the recycling scheme has been a success, so I won't resigning for that!

I am not the key player in this, my role was purely to get the club to explore the County Ground site, which I have done.  It is for the club to decide whether a scheme can stack up.

 If you're not a key player why do start the thread with this......

 

I am the Councillor who has been leading on the County Ground redevelopment

  Which begs the question if you're not then what's the point of people asking questions as if you are?

[JTomlinson]

Err...  To be fair Reg, I don't think you are giving me a chance here.

My job was to get STFC to explore the potential of the County Ground site.  (Supported by a cross-party motion at Full Council last Autumn).

I have made sure that has happened, and I have also made sure both Swindon Council and the New Swindon Company have been on hand to help the club.

The club is now in talks with their developer (St. Modwin) about how they can finance the deal.

Therefore I have lead the discussions.

As I have also been able to see the progress, I am able to shed light onto general questions like, 'are they going to turn the pitch 90 degrees etc)

[JTomlinson]

How did that go from county ground to rubbish bins.... how ironic.

    OK very funny......

    JT though apart from trying to get the Councuil to build us a new football ground....is in charge of Swindon Services which are presently in a farcical mess.

   This is not the sort of thing to fill you with confidence.

Reg, that is not true.

1 - Swindon Services is not in a mess.
2 - The Council is not the ones building the new ground, that would be STFC and their developer partner.

[Marie]

I can feel tension  :?

[Reg Smeeton]

You know and I know that nothing can happen on this site without political will.....bringing the horses to water, is one thing but you've got to make them drink.

  If by SBC you mean its officers.....they will happily do what they are asked by their political masters....the Tories currnently run the Council so are you fully commited to driving this through....or is it now a case of backsliding and looking for someone to blame?

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

Reg the council has always been shit whether it be Labout or Torie!

[JTomlinson]

Reg...

Partly right, partly not right...

There does have to be some political will.  For example:

1 - there had to be the will to get everyone say round the table.  (This was supported by all the parties)

2 - if the club wishes to move facilities to other sites, for example the cricket pitch, then again there would have to be a political will to support this.  (Again this would need to be cross-party support, for example local Councillors might object to any potential new site in their patch)

This could be an real test.

On a personal level I think moving the facilities could help improve them, for example, the cricket pitch is a couple of metres short of being County level, and short of bull dozing the Arkells stand, this simply can't happen at the current site.

Where you are wrong for example is:

1 - The Council are not the ones who would be building the ground.

2 - Should plans be brought to planning, then the issues are determined only on planning issues and not emotion.  (If they were, then any challenge could be over turned in court, and huge amounts of damages claimed).

3 - We can not force the club to proceed if they don't think the plans can stack up.

[Reg Smeeton]

So back to the question....does the political will exist in the Tory group to make this happen?

  As for the wrong points I don't recall stating any of them anyway.....but if you want to raise them for proper debate then do so

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

Reg there are no proper debates on this site (as you just discovered with me and boeta)

[Reg Smeeton]

How did that go from county ground to rubbish bins.... how ironic.

    OK very funny......

    JT though apart from trying to get the Councuil to build us a new football ground....is in charge of Swindon Services which are presently in a farcical mess.

   This is not the sort of thing to fill you with confidence.

Reg, that is not true.

1 - Swindon Services is not in a mess.
2 - The Council is not the ones building the new ground, that would be STFC and their developer partner.

  If Swindon services is not a mess then how come Bawden apologized for the recycling fiasco about a month ago and to my eyes going around town little has improved since?

 http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/archive/2005/04/15/swindon_news4ZM.html

[JTomlinson]

So back to the question....does the political will exist in the Tory group to make this happen?

  As for the wrong points I don't recall stating any of them anyway.....but if you want to raise them for proper debate then do so

As it stands it exists in all the groups as that was the whole point of the cross party motion.

The Council would like to see a redeveloped County Ground site.

The two tests are:

1 - Can the club make it financially work.
2 - Will Councillors object when the actual scheme comes.  (Ie local Councillors may object if the club wants to make certain changes)

[JTomlinson]

  If Swindon services is not a mess then how come Bawden apologized for the recycling fiasco about a month ago and to my eyes going around town little has improved since?

 http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/archive/2005/04/15/swindon_news4ZM.html

When the new scheme was launched there were some teething problems, and at least (unlike national politics), we had the guts to admit it.  However, they do seem to have been dealt with.  The response to the scheme has been fantastic, with the majority of households now taking joining in the recycling.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

yeah i am altough it doesnt include plastic. whys that JT?

[JTomlinson]

Currently not possible, though it is something we are working towards.

We have though added loads of plastic recycling sites all over town, which have proved extremely popular.

I am keen to see us extend this as you could argue this is the most important thing to actually recycle.

[Reg Smeeton]

So back to the question....does the political will exist in the Tory group to make this happen?

  As for the wrong points I don't recall stating any of them anyway.....but if you want to raise them for proper debate then do so

As it stands it exists in all the groups as that was the whole point of the cross party motion.

The Council would like to see a redeveloped County Ground site.

The two tests are:

1 - Can the club make it financially work.
2 - Will Councillors object when the actual scheme comes.  (Ie local Councillors may object if the club wants to make certain changes)

   The club cannot make it work financially without something from the Council, who are the land owner.....whilst aware that SBC is limited by central government legislation, there has to be some room for creativity, as Swansea and Hull have shown......have any discussions of this type taken place?

   I think we already know that Central and Walcot councillors will object to this scheme,  are the Tory group prepared to stand up to them, or will that be too risky to your majority?