Lib Dems in bitter attack on Labour counterparts

In a leaflet distributed to homes in Eastcott ward at the end of last week, the party’s most senior councillor accused his Labour shadow parish council colleagues of ‘seizing control’.

The outraged tone of the leaflet stands in stark contrast to the apparent calm and diligence that was on display at the first public meeting of the shadow council last week.

There are only two Lib Dem councillors on Swindon Borough Council, both representing Eastcott ward and both sitting on the interim body for the new Central Swindon South parish.

Their latest leaflet describes the area as a ‘monster parish’ made up of Eastcott, Parks and Walcot - while the size of the parish could indeed be described as monstrous, the selection of the three aforementioned areas in particular appears selective.

Central South Swindon also includes much of the town centre, Old Town, Okus, Kingshill, Lawn and Badbury Park.

Writing in the leaflet, Coun Stan Pajak (LD) labelled the shadow parishes as “undemocratic” - he also claimed that “the Labour Party seized control without consulting other parties”.

However, Labour councillor Chris Watts was the only person nominated as chairman and no objections were received, not even from the two Lib Dem councillors.

A majority of councillors on the shadow parish council are Labour members, but as with all the new shadow bodies, that is merely a reflection of the party-affiliations of the elected borough councillors in that area.

The shadow councils are an interim measure due to last until the first full parish council elections in May.

The leaflet also stokes fears that “the Labour party will force through massive council tax increases”.

It is inevitable that there will be tax increases with the borough council offloading frontline services to the parish level.

It was not apparent at the recent parish council meeting that either of the Lib Dems had raised concerns about the scale of that increase.

Local party activist Toby Robson also wrote: "We will keep fighting this monster parish from the inside and the outside to get fair services for Eastcott ward and to keep council tax rises as low as they possibly can be."

Both Labour and the Lib Dems opposed the council’s parishing project and councillors from both parties have continued to articulate strong concerns. It came as a surprise, therefore, that Labour was the target of the first overtly partisan attack since their introduction.

Responding to the claims in the leaflet, Coun Chris Watts (Lab) said: “When I read the leaflet I was rather surprised as they appear to be opposed to the level of parish precept and yet at the shadow parish meetings they have raised no objections and in some cases requested additional items for Eastcott ward that has further raised the precept.

“I have subsequently spoken with Coun Pajak and he explained that this leaflet was just a bit of politics and not to take it too seriously.

“So I look forward to still working constructively and apolitically with the Liberal Democrat councillors, and indeed all councillors on the shadow parish council.

“It would appear in the leaflet that the Liberal Democrats object to the size of the Central-South parish.

“However I personally object to Swindon Council imposing new parish councils on people in the first place, as they have forced residents to pay for services through a precept they were already paying for through their normal council-tax.”

Coun Pajak said the tone of the leaflet would not alter his willingness to work with other councillors.

“The word seize was trying to make it an interesting read I suppose,” he said.

“They did it by default by having the most councillors, seize is just jargon.

“We were trying to catch people’s attention because so many people still don’t know what is going on, these are unusual times.

“We were making a point – our objective would still be to have Eastcott as a separate parish and to try to keep the parish rate down as much as possible.”