THE Labour Group is set to put forward a number of amendments to next year’s budget ahead of a final vote on Monday.

At a meeting on Monday, the council is set to approve the budget which will include a freeze on council tax but involves a number of cuts.

However, the opposition want to try and push through a number of changes to make sure a number of problems in the town, including anti-social behaviour and litter, are tackled Labour want to see a number of new youth workers employed along with some street cleaners, while they want to see a one-off purchase of books for the town’s libraries.

Part of the amendment is also to give a living wage for all council workers.

The move will be funded by moving Forward Swindon into council offices, as well as cutting their budget, and members’ expenses will be reduced while the refreshment budget will be entirely slashed.

These changes would save the £300,000 needed to fund their plans.

Labour leader Coun Jimm Grant (Rodbourne Cheney) said: “This amendment is all about a different choice in terms of staff welfare and tackling some of the challenges Swindon faces.

“Also, we still have work to do to tackle anti-social behaviour in some of our communities and that is why we’re proposing to employ qualified youth workers to tackle the root causes of this behaviour and prevent it from happening.

“The declining state of our streets and neighbourhoods is one of the regular concerns residents express to us on the doorstep so that is why we want to commission a street cleaning hit squad, where street cleaners would to go in to communities and properly clear the litter, the fly tipping and the blocked gullies.

“Finally library users have been flagging up that libraries’ book stocks are in need of replenishment and updating so we are proposing a one-off sum of £25,000 to give library users a good and up-to-date selection of library books to choose from.”

However, council leader David Renard (Con, Haydon Wick) says the last minute plans do not do enough to tackle serious problems.

He said: “I have to say I am disappointed with the amendments being put forward.

“This council is facing a £17 million problem and all of these are just tinkering around the edges.

“It shows the Labour Group is not serious about running the town and so they are going for easy headlines.

“If they were serious they would have come up with some serious suggestions some time ago and not come up with these last minute changes. It also shows they agree with 99 per cent of what we have presented.”