Cash worries put museum at risk (From Swindon Advertiser)

Swindon council should immediately stop pumping precious taxpayers money into non-critical services, like arts and leisure.

These services have no place in Councils.

The Council should stop
Big Arts Day and Helen Miah should be sent off somewhere to do this

Art Gallery should be put in private hands, closed or sold off.

Sports centres in private hands like every other council I've seen. The quality of our centres is disgusting because all the money goes on paying staff.

Great idea. Good riddance

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:
Swindon council should immediately stop pumping precious taxpayers money into non-critical services, like arts and leisure.

Hear-Hear.

The trouble with blithely suggesting everything goes into private hands or is shut is that many of the things provided might not tun a profit on their own, but still do a lot to deflect the public perception of the town as being a complete and utter cultural wasteland. Instead of throwing the baby out with the bath-water, what about looking at some effective management instead? If the gallery had been properly housed years ago, it could have been turned into an asset which would have been more than capable of not only supporting itself, but potentially turning in a profit for all of us.

Its been rumoured that big business is starting to shy away from Swindon as a place to relocate even though its cheap because its got such an indescribably naff reputation, they can't get skilled workers to relocate here. There are invisible benefits to having venues which put on cultural events which often get overlooked by simple short-term bean-counting. We're well catered for if we want to get wrecked in a lager bar, becoming obese on home delivered pizza or want to purchase a new baseball cap - but those are somewhat limited horizons which aren't lost on outsiders.

I'm not saying for a minute that anything to do with arts or culture should take precedence over the provision of essential services but every succesful balanced community benefits from entertainment and an interesting environment.

Kill Arts and culture dead and you'll ruin the towns chances of pulling itself from the mire of being seen as one of the country's crappest towns.

Philistines!

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:
Swindon council should immediately stop pumping precious taxpayers money into non-critical services, like arts and leisure.

I completely disagree, mainly on the basis that services like arts and leisure are very much critical to Swindon.

Swindon more than most places, in fact.

There are other areas of the budget that really do need cutting, much deeper and much faster.

It is lamentable that a town the size of Swindon (getting on for 1/4 of a million people these days) may not deliver the funds necessary to keep its own Museum open. Especially as this town really now only has its past going for it.

Oldswindonian wrote:
Philistines!

****, you beat me to it!

Amberflame wrote:

Oldswindonian wrote:
Philistines!

****, you beat me to it!

Blast, you beat me to it!!

Tim Newroman wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:
Swindon council should immediately stop pumping precious taxpayers money into non-critical services, like arts and leisure.

I completely disagree, mainly on the basis that services like arts and leisure are very much critical to Swindon.

Swindon more than most places, in fact.

There are other areas of the budget that really do need cutting, much deeper and much faster.

It is lamentable that a town the size of Swindon (getting on for 1/4 of a million people these days) may not deliver the funds necessary to keep its own Museum open. Especially as this town really now only has its past going for it.

Quite agree.
There are still far too many lazy, feckless, oversize and workshy families in Swindon claiming benefits they do not deserve and have not contributed towards.
Stop their benefits before laying waste to what culture there's still left in the town.
Every time I pay my grossly excessive council tax I'm left wondering exactly what I get for my money.

How about some of our Council Tax goes on facilities for those of us that pay it, such as the museum rather than simply going to those who are on benefits

I used to love going to the museum in old town as a child, can still remember the big crocodile vividly.

Looking at some of the comments here I can see how Swindon has ended-up with the shambolic leadership it has.

I've heard there used to be talk of moving the art collection to the old railway museum. Unfortunately the Swindon Conservative omnishambles decided they wanted a youth centre instead.

I saw in the Swindon Masterplan that the museum in Old Town was going to be expanded. Unfortunately the Swindon Conservative omnishambles have decided to potentially close it down.

So now the Swindon CONservative omnishamblers need to save £500,000 - well how about employing fewer CONsultants? They've spent over £1 million on CONsultants in the past year.

The worst thing is that Labour in Swindon seem to be about as useless as the Conservatives!

Always Grumpy wrote:

Tim Newroman wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:
Swindon council should immediately stop pumping precious taxpayers money into non-critical services, like arts and leisure.

I completely disagree, mainly on the basis that services like arts and leisure are very much critical to Swindon.

Swindon more than most places, in fact.

There are other areas of the budget that really do need cutting, much deeper and much faster.

It is lamentable that a town the size of Swindon (getting on for 1/4 of a million people these days) may not deliver the funds necessary to keep its own Museum open. Especially as this town really now only has its past going for it.

Quite agree.
There are still far too many lazy, feckless, oversize and workshy families in Swindon claiming benefits they do not deserve and have not contributed towards.
Stop their benefits before laying waste to what culture there's still left in the town.
Every time I pay my grossly excessive council tax I'm left wondering exactly what I get for my money.

The problem is that Swindon needs to attract and keep students, young, active people, with top rated facilities, events and University.
This town is dying of old age, we spend 33% of the budget on older people and special needs......and this proportion is not going to reduce.....in fact quite the opposite, Swindon is one of the fastest ageing town in the country!

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:

Always Grumpy wrote:

Tim Newroman wrote:

A.Baron-Cohen wrote:
Swindon council should immediately stop pumping precious taxpayers money into non-critical services, like arts and leisure.

I completely disagree, mainly on the basis that services like arts and leisure are very much critical to Swindon.

Swindon more than most places, in fact.

There are other areas of the budget that really do need cutting, much deeper and much faster.

It is lamentable that a town the size of Swindon (getting on for 1/4 of a million people these days) may not deliver the funds necessary to keep its own Museum open. Especially as this town really now only has its past going for it.

Quite agree.
There are still far too many lazy, feckless, oversize and workshy families in Swindon claiming benefits they do not deserve and have not contributed towards.
Stop their benefits before laying waste to what culture there's still left in the town.
Every time I pay my grossly excessive council tax I'm left wondering exactly what I get for my money.

The problem is that Swindon needs to attract and keep students, young, active people, with top rated facilities, events and University.
This town is dying of old age, we spend 33% of the budget on older people and special needs......and this proportion is not going to reduce.....in fact quite the opposite, Swindon is one of the fastest ageing town in the country!

"Swindon is one of the fastest ageing town in the country!"...........
..
You have supporting evidence for that statement I presume. No, I thought not. In fact swindon has one of the youngest populations in the country.
As to attracting young people to the town, these people want leisure and cultural activities, which you would cut in order to further feed your sacred cow of those on benefits and the bone idle - how very left wing!
You also forgot to mention, very conveniently, the 22% spent on children and young people, plus of course, the 33% supporting older people and adults with special needs does include young adults.
Very selective with your 'facts' aren't you?
Towns with high percentages of immigrants are highly unlikely to attract young people either. Nor will high percentages of people on benefits be much of an attraction to young people.
Just for once try thinking about what drivel you write before you actually post anything - you do look such a complete fool - as many others have commented on.

"Swindon is one of the fastest ageing town in the country!"

While it's true a lot of people here look pretty rough, I can assure you that nobody in Swindon ages faster than anyone else on the planet earth.