This week, we have laid out each party's vision for certain key policy areas in Swindon. Today, in their own words, the parties outline their plans for transport and planning

Conservatives

Swindon’s Conservative-run council will continue its policy, as set out in the Council Vision, to improve infrastructure and housing to support a growing, low-carbon economy.

Securing managed growth is central to achieving this, which is why the council was among the first to adopt to Local Plan to set out its strategic sites.

In addition, a number of parishes have also adopted their own Neighbourhood Plans.

This has helped see the number of new homes completed in the last year rise to over 1,500.

The Conservatives will continue to support appropriate growth, especially in the New Eastern Villages or with our development partner on Wichelstowe.

By the selling of Thamesdown Buses, the Conservatives have ensured that there is competition for the major routes, as well as ensuring that there is investment is buses and the services they provide.

The administration welcomes the investment in the railway that will increase speed and capacity to London, Cardiff, and other destinations.

Negotiations are in hand about how we can secure a modern station that will provide proper access to the north of the railway.

The Conservatives have almost completed works at J16 to increase capacity.

We are upgrading Mannington roundabout and will be investing £4m to improve flow in the Meads Way corridor.

We are consulting on improvements to the White Hart junction. We continue to press for funding to take the Thamesdown Drive extension forward.

There are no easy solutions when more and more of us choose the convenience of driving and our road layout is limited by the railway lines.

Labour

The Conservatives have left Swindon with an insufficient number of homes built and our transport infrastructure is also insufficient to meet traffic demand.

The key reason why there are not enough homes being built is because house builders are land banking - not building on land they own in order to artificially raise house prices and boost future profits. That is why we support the Labour Party’s ‘use it or lose it’ policy for house builders who are land banking.

We are not building the number of affordable homes we need because the Conservatives are allowing housebuilders to renegotiate down the number of affordable homes they have to build, boosting their profits.

This was done, for example, at the Badbury Park development. An incoming Labour administration will reject any advances from developers to renegotiate down the number of affordable homes they have to build.

On our future transport infrastructure plans, we will focus on what will mitigate the traffic. This means that to the east of Swindon, we will not build a bridge over the A419 just for buses as the Tories propose and will make sure new infrastructure is open to all traffic.

We will review the existing road network to see how our road infrastructure can be changed to improve the traffic on our roads, and will work with communities to put 20 miles per hour speed limits on residential streets where wanted to keep children and pedestrians safe.

Liberal Democrats

Housing in Swindon is in short supply and is too expensive for many of our citizens to rent or to buy. Some housing is in a very poor condition.

On the other hand, many householders are concerned about what may happen to their local environment and access to facilities if housing development is unchecked.

Liberal Democrats believe that everyone should have access to affordable housing of an acceptable standard. All new housing schemes should have at least 30 per cent affordable houses backed by a dramatic rise in the building of council houses.

Swindon is blighted by the relatively poor environment of the town centre and insufficient educational institutions. Both of these limit opportunities particularly for our young people and constrain the local economy.

The Liberal Democrats will ensure that planning and sustainable development occur at pace in line with the council’s ambitious Local Plan.

We need investment in transport infrastructure to reduce reliance on the car for short journeys in and across the town. Failure to do so will adversely affect the health of our children in particular.

Increasing traffic congestion reduces productivity for businesses. Liberal Democrats support evidence-based transport policy to improve healthy access to the town’s facilities for all of our citizens, young and old.

Improvements are needed to cycling and walking routes. Swindon like Bristol should be cycling city with special Government funding. Transport needs must be addressed early in the planning process and the Liberal Democrats do not support planning permission being given until these issues have been addressed.

Green Party

Air pollution is the world’s single biggest environmental health risk. We want to help end this public health crisis by increasing incentives to take fossil-fuelled vehicles off the roads and encourage the transition to hybrid and fully electric vehicles.

For its size, Swindon should have a much better public transport system. We will build an integrated and reliable transport network, providing commuters and shoppers a range of travel options, including better public transport, walking and cycling routes.

Our policy to increase public investment in Swindon’s bus and railway services will help ease the strain on our roads. This will benefit all employers, including our many large companies and their related supply chains.

We support residential development through refurbishing and improving existing housing and building affordable and accessible new homes.

We encourage our town planners to design low-traffic neighbourhoods with safe, convenient networks of walking and cycling routes, so people of all ages and those with disabilities can choose to make local trips on foot, by bike or mobility scooter.

It should be easy to choose to leave the car at home – or not have one at all.

We will ensure there is no trade-off between sports fields, parks and other green spaces with large developments like the Snow Dome that are dependent on car use.

Our policy is to take a holistic approach to planning that includes nature and green spaces, to enhance leisure, health and wellbeing, and revolves around a fully accessible and step-free public transport system.

UKIP

Swindon has suffered years of neglect and has failed to keep up with the population explosion that nobody ever voted for. This has cause a huge strain on our infrastructure, particularly the roads. We want to improve this by investing more in public transport and in the design of our roads. Our public services decline must be immediately reversed.

People voted for Brexit to control immigration but we are still allowing over 500,000 people in to our country a year when our infrastructure is bucking.

Following years of failure by Labour councillors in Rodbourne to address the traffic problems, we will talk to the residents who have suffered from this issue, and to the drivers who are regularly caught up in traffic jams in order to find a solution. We want to add to the Park and Ride scheme on more key routes and publicise it, to encourage commuters and more visitors to visit Swindon.

Following the increase in accidents along Thamesdown Drive, we believe that red light traffic cameras should be installed in order to save lives.

There are still many homes in Swindon that do not have Fibre Optic internet access despite being close to an exchange. We shall press for all homes to have access to it as soon as possible.

When many estates were built, it was not foreseen that many households would have more than one car. We demand that all new builds must cater for this and provide sensible spaces on all estates.