THREE Labour councillors have branded as “childish” the leader of the council’s reply to their calls to set up a cross-party action group to tackle the town’s traffic problems.

Last week, Mannington and Western councillors Steph Exell, Jim Robbins and Kevin Small announced they would present to council on Thursday, January 25 a motion to help end the gridlock nightmare around the Rodbourne area.

The plan is to establish a cross-party cabinet member advisory group to look at ways the council can alleviate constant gridlock.

In response, Coun David Renard, leader of SBC, said the trio were making “political mischief” and did not live in the real world.

Unimpressed, the Labour councillors hit back.

In a statement, they said: “For the leader of the council to describe councillors raising the legitimate concerns of the residents as making 'political mischief' is hugely frustrating, as we know that thousands of Swindon residents are being inconvenienced, and Rodbourne residents are facing the brunt of this. 

“To say that there are no solutions or that there is no money for tackling these issues is not truthful. Residents have made many sensible solutions to deal with the issue in both the long and the short term, many of which have very little cost.

“We thank all of those residents and businesses who have taken the time to get in touch with their ideas this week. We were contacted by a local business whose takings were down over £2,000 on Saturday alone.”

In discussing possible solutions, it was suggested that the council ensures that traffic wardens are in the area at busy times, that the cost of parking in the Bristol Street and Sheppard Street car parks be dropped to the same level as Outlet Village parking rates at the weekend, and for yellow box markings to be added to the Meads roundabout.

The councillors continued: “We have had many suggestions for the longer term solutions such as using the existing park and ride areas, reviewing the bus lane priorities at non-peak times, placing more parking restrictions on Penzance Drive, and adding lanes to the Bruce St Roundabout to give a dedicated exit for cars turning left on to Great Western Way.”

They concluded: “We hope that the leader of the council will rethink his response to our request for a cross-party way forward.

“The residents of Swindon deserve to have their politicians working together with officers to solve the issues facing the town.”

But Coun Renard insisted that his administration has a good record of working with ward members when it comes to making tough decisions.

He said: “We are willing to re-examine options. However, we have to balance three competing goals.

“First, we do not want to compromise the successful Designer Outlet Village and so imperil the wealth and jobs it creates. Second, we do not want to introduce measures that push problems from one ward to another. Third, we are mindful that to pull resources into one area such as redeploying parking enforcement officers, may have unintended consequences for other parts of the town.”

The issue will be discussed when the full council meets on Thursday, January 25.