New move to take Swindon forward (From Swindon Advertiser)
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New move to take Swindon forward
12:30pm Tuesday 9th March 2010 in
A NEW ‘arms length’ company charged with Swindon’s regeneration is set to be established tomorrow to replace the New Swindon Company.
The new company, to be called Forward Swindon Limited (FSL), will supersede TNSC and take control of regenerating the town, but with the crucial difference that it will be wholly owned by Swindon Borough Council.
Previously, TNSC was part-owned by the Homes and Communities Agency, the South West Regional Development Agency and Swindon council, but the new FSL will have the council as its sole shareholder.
Coun Phil young, cabinet member for culture, regeneration and economic development, said the new company will be able to drive the town’s regeneration forward but also admitted that TNSC was only partly successful.
He said: “The new company will look at regeneration for the entire borough and not just the town centre.
“It will also involve the economic development function which had previously been separate from the New Swindon Company.
“The main issue with the NSC was accountability – there were three owners and it was difficult to action things without reaching an agreement between everyone.
“The brilliant thing about FSL is that it will be completely owned and run by the council so we can get things done quicker and we are solely accountable, thus avoiding duplication.
“TNSC was partly a success in that it did bring forward a master plan for the town, but I think everyone would agree that we would have wanted to be further along the regeneration line now.”
If the decision to axe TNSC and create FSL is taken at the cabinet meeting tomorrow night, all undertakings and funds will be transferred over and TNSC wound down.
The SWRDA has agreed to transfer all funding to the new company as well as giving it a one-off funding sum of £1.5m.
Coun Young said: “This new company will push forward the regeneration of Swindon and people will see things getting done.
“It will continue to look at the town centre but also other areas that are in need of regeneration – such as Old Town.
“Of course we, along with every other council in the UK, are on tenterhooks to see what funding cuts will happen after the election, but we are making sure we are set up and ready to go on the regeneration front.
“The biggest problem we have in terms of public perception is that people think we are stalling and not doing anything. The reality is that regeneration takes a long time and we are always being compared to Bristol with people saying they managed to build Cabot Circus in the same time as we have had.
“That is simply not true – Cabot Circus was 20 years in the planning and we do not have that amount of time to transform Swindon.”
Comments(18)
Kineasy
says...
1:30pm Tue 9 Mar 10
Bobfm
says...
1:32pm Tue 9 Mar 10
So off load costs to SBC. Of course SBC fall for it.
Is SBC picking up the redundancy bill, or simply employing the same people who have failed so far.
politicrat
says...
1:37pm Tue 9 Mar 10
1- SBC should immediately consult local residents about what the wish to have in their own town centre
2- SBC should then commission an architect and town planner to measure the feasibility and costs of the residents
3- once established the SBC should put forward various plans and their costs to be sanctionned by way of local referendum.
We dont need a new company to fail us and waste further tax payer money, we need popular consultation!
Bobfm
says...
5:57pm Tue 9 Mar 10
Could we just be seeing the start of more 'dirty deals'.
woolster0
says...
6:51pm Tue 9 Mar 10
Bobby Bee
says...
7:04pm Tue 9 Mar 10
You couldn't make such a pig's ear of managing Swindon if you tried!
Now does Mike B still think Swindon should achieve city status?
Mr Blackwell
says...
7:11pm Tue 9 Mar 10
.
Time will tell, but given that it's essentially the same team, give or take, as before... why does anyone expect the outcome to be any different than the big, fat zero that was 'delivered' by the New Swindon Company.
.
BTW, given that the 'New' Swindon Company never actually achieved anything, are we still 'Old' Swindon?
I Too
says...
7:51pm Tue 9 Mar 10
"
Swindon town centre has always been "New Swindon" since the victorian times.
Originally Swindon consisted of Old Town.
The Great Western Railway generated "New Swindon" and the Mechanics' Institute (forming a group called The New Swindon Improvement Company) strived successfuly to improve culture and amenities (far better than SBC could ever hope to achieve). That's why the current bunch of clowns couldn't see anything wrong in burying the building under a ten storey greenhouse.
Just calling themselves The NEW Swindon Company was a demonstration of the "regeneration" organisations' incompetence, and lack of knowledge of the town
itsamess
says...
11:22pm Tue 9 Mar 10
mickdp
says...
11:47pm Tue 9 Mar 10
mickdp
says...
11:50pm Tue 9 Mar 10
Council cannot do that
real -life
says...
8:28am Wed 10 Mar 10
So why the hell have you wasted all this time up to now then? If you had got your act together sooner, we wouldnt be in the mess we are now. "Partners" and "consultants" are what is destroying this town already, we dont need another load of unaccountable money grabbing idiots getting their hands on our hard earned money. We have enough with Crapita and Swindon Services, who themselves become an "Arms length management company" next month as well so even less control over what they do or more importantly what the dont do but still charge the Council for!
We pay our taxes to the Council and they should be the ones doing the work and have total accountability to the taxpayer. Ok it doest help that the Councillors are more concerned about the sound of their own voices and the Council managers are still living in the 1980's when it was all "lets worry about it tomorrow" and "what is an efficiency saving again?". Yet another white elephant for Swindon from a Council who couldnt run a bring and buy stall let alone a town the size of Swindon! Free Wifi anyone?
The Witch
says...
8:42am Wed 10 Mar 10
Kineasy wrote:This was a man that looked and dressed like a bookie's runner but had a vision to bring the town into the twentieth century. He did it without expensive consultations from firms just lining their pockets. Would that SBC had someone of his calibre now.
Murray-John regenerated the town virtually single handed, from a small office in the Town Hall and still managed to support STFC every saturday at home.
Bobfm
says...
9:56am Wed 10 Mar 10
Last year in a joint letter to all Tory MP's, and one assumes PPC's Caroline Spellman and Kenneth Clarke confirmed there plans to abolish RDA's amongst other quangos, this was prompted by John Redwood posting it on his blog.
It seems however that isn't now the policy, or is it. In another letter by the same two they 'seek to clear up any confusion over the policy'.
Well in a Q&A session at the end of the letter there is this Courtesy of the Birmingham Post.
The pair insisted they did not want to scrap regional agencies, saying: “We want to reform the system, not scrap it.”
But they also said the agencies would be “replaced” by new organisations, saying: “We will reform the system by enabling your local councils to replace the existing agency with a new partnership between themselves and local business, to focus on things like regeneration and jobs. This will mean elected councils and local businesses deciding local economic priorities.”
So replacing a RDA, with a local partnership, isn't apparently abolishing them, That's clear then.
Perhaps Justin or Rob would like to clear this up?:):):).
Sad Local
says...
11:40am Wed 10 Mar 10
It worked.
Labour and Conservative councillors, anxious for personal publicity, think that they are town planners, negotiators, accountants, and lawyers.
~They are not, and the disastrous state of the Town confirms it!
I Too
says...
6:23pm Wed 10 Mar 10
"
So replacing a RDA, with a local partnership, isn't apparently abolishing them, That's clear then.
Perhaps Justin or Rob would like to clear this up?:):):).
"
I would like to say I told you so, when you first believed that the Tories were going to save our souls.
I always know when they are lying. There lips move.
Bobfm
says...
8:05pm Wed 10 Mar 10
As time goes on 'Call me Dave' simply shows what a mess the Tories will make of running the country. Mind you I suppose the voters of Swindon will be use to that by now.
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Sad Local says...
12:40pm Tue 9 Mar 10
Why not take it back in house and get some high calibre staff in-who know what they are doing!
The same old talking shop full of "deadbeats" is likely to founder as fast as the other mis-guided experiments.