Parks Councillor Swindon - What have I been doing?

The snow has nearly gone It is a smiley face as although I enjoyed the snow, enough is enough and with many trapped in their homes through fear of a nasty fall, we needed a thaw.
After sledging and walking about in the snow and only falling once, I have now broken my toe by stubbing it on the carpet in my house It hasn't stopped me doing anything, I am just a lot slower and it hurts Can I recommend that you all wears socks or slippers at all times!

As a Labour Group of Councillors we had an information meeting about the Housing options yesterday. Here is the issue as I understand it ;-

As a council, we have 10,552 properties.

We collect rent, and provide up keep to all of these properties.

14P in every £1 paid in rent goes in to a central pot controlled by central Govt for redistribution.

We dont get anything from this redistribution, it goes to councils who cant afford to maintain services through the rent payments. Maybe they have lots of empty properties, I know some councils up north suffer from this.

Anyway I digress, ...

looking ahead we will not be able to maintain the current level of service we give tenants in terms of replacement works, repairs etc as we do now. We can see this by looking at future rents and the money going to the central pot and at our own costs of keeping up repairs and work on the properties.

So

we need to ask everyone who rents one of our properties if they

A. Want to stay with us but will get less from us

B. Want to transfer to someone else, like a housing association who have the benefit of not having to pay into the central pot so keep money we lose.

C. Want to go to an Arms Length Management Organisation (stay as we are but with management services provided by an agency that is separate but reporting to the Council)

D. Want a Private Finance Initiative – a method of attracting private funding to improve the stock, but with the Council still keeping a long term interest in the housing stock

The desision will rest with the tenants. If the choice is to stay with the council we will have to look at ways at getting more for our money and maybe getting more money in.

If it is decided to look beyound the council we will look at which model tenants want before any final desision is made.

Is that any clearer that it was before you started reading my blog ?! If you want to know more do check out the web page here and you can always contact me

News from the Police, Jan 09 newsletter

OPERATION DRIPSTONE

Criminal Damage

Your neighbourhood Police team are undertaking an Operation, with intelligence lead, targeted patrols, to counter the scourge of offences of criminal damage and anti-social behaviour.

We are targeting known locations at key times with a patrol strategy which is geared towards preventing these types of offences.

We are working hard to make your neighbourhood a much safer place to live.

THE MISUSE OF DRUGS

Any use or supply of any illegal drugs will not be tolerated and you, the community have asked us to help you clean up your streets.

If you have any information that may assist the Police in combating drugs offences, please let us know. You can email us at :

parksandwalcoteastnpt@wiltshire.pnn.police.uk

or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

PCSO 6207 Lucy PLUMB

PCSO Lucy PLUMB has joined our team of PCSO’s and hopefully, by now many of you will have seen her or met her. Lucy is already undertaking some great work with the local schools and is already proving to be a valuable and hard working member of the team

Hope you are all wrapped up warm and being careful on the roads and pavements. I've just had an email with the following statments in which I thought it would be useful to pass on to you :-

Gritting

A spokesperson for Swindon Borough Council said: “Despite the national shortage of supplies to grit roads, the Council is well-prepared and coping well with the adverse weather. Although supplies are running low, the usual routes will be gritted tonight, including public transport routes and minor roads. We are also continuing to grit shopping areas and footbridges, in addition to refilling salt boxes. Full details of the gritting routes, and any other changes to services, are available on the Council’s website at www.swindon.gov.uk “

Waste Collection

A spokesperson for Swindon Borough Council said: “Due to the ongoing adverse weather conditions, we are adapting our services where necessary. Kerbside recycling collections may be disrupted. If your box is not emptied, please take it in and save it until next week. Emptying wheelie bins is a more time-consuming process in the snow. Some wheelie bin collections are therefore being delayed. We ask residents to leave their bins out and thank them for their patience. If other wheelie bins in the street have been emptied, residents should call: (01793) 445501 to register a missed collection. Normal waste collection services are expected to resume on Monday (9 Feb).”