£300,000 fund to boost Town's image (From Swindon Advertiser)
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£300,000 fund to boost Town's image
8:00am Saturday 28th January 2012 in News By David Wiles
IAN PIPER, chief executive of Forward Swindon
UP to £300,000 of public money is to be spent on boosting Swindon’s image after business leaders said it needs to be improved to attract more companies and staff.
Bosses from Honda, Intel and Nationwide told a meeting that they struggle to retain staff because they don’t want to move to the town and that companies don’t want to relocate because it has a poor reputation.
Mike Godfrey, divisional manager and chief engineer at Honda of the UK Manufacturing, said: “Honda itself needs to be linked with a successful town and unfortunately at this point Swindon isn’t recognised for that.”
Business bigwigs also said they spend thousands of pounds using taxis to ferry staff to Heathrow because of poor rail links, they lose top employees as they are head-hunted in the towns they choose to live in and struggle to attract new staff to the town.
Now economic development firm Forward Swindon is to be given a budget of £100,000 a year by Swindon Council to generally improve the town’s reputation and promote it as a hot destination to start up in or relocate to.
The project was announced at Swindon Council’s economic, environmental and sustainability overview and scrutiny committee, after three of the town’s largest employers said the town has an image problem that needed rectifying.
The project has a budget of about £100,000 a year, representing about 10 to 14 per cent of the overall budget of Forward Swindon, which is funded by Swindon Council.
Ian Piper, the chief executive, said: “Swindon’s performance in landing leads over the last few years hasn’t been that great and this is why this is needed to up our game to improve our level of success rate.
“Swindon is a great location, it’s relatively affordable as well. But we do need to have some key messaging and keep repeating that. I think there are some strong perceptions about Swindon which I think we need to change over a period of time.”
He added that the cost of the campaign was not much compared to some of the big cities, which spend more than £1m per year on such marketing.
The integrated campaign will see businesses across the UK targeted in integrated bursts of six months via the internet and social media, PR, and leaflets.
The material will focus on case studies, events and commentary, regeneration news, local business updates and partner activities.
Forward Swindon will also launch a new website with sections including life in Swindon, regeneration projects, key facts, the local economy, a location map, and a facility which enables businesses to search for land available for new factories or offices.
The key campaign messages will be that Swindon has a central UK location, with good connections, has a highly-productive workforce, offers office rents 30 per cent less than Reading or Bristol, has a strong manufacturing base, and is willing to find the right base for businesses.
Andy Tait, operations manager at Intel in Swindon, said the town needed a new slogan or selling point, adding that its old reputation as the fastest growing town in Europe was a huge success.
He said: “Once a brand is established in somebody’s mind it’s difficult to change and I think that’s a challenge for Swindon, to change it’s brand perception for people not in the immediate vicinity of Swindon.
“It could be something like Swindon decides we’re going to be the greenest town in England or we’re going to be the high-tech centre of the West, or something that changes the perception of it.”
Mr Tait and Rob Angus, group head of strategy and planning at Nationwide, both said that Swindon’s reputation made it difficult to attract highly-skilled staff to work here, with some choosing to commute from Bristol, Bath, or Oxford.
Swindon Council’s deputy leader, Garry Perkins, who is also responsible for regeneration, said: “We have heard some good points about Swindon. After all, Honda, Nationwide and Intel wouldn’t be here if it was such a bad town.
“We have got a lot to learn, we’ve got to take on board what we’ve heard tonight and see if we can make some fast progress.”
The committee will use the companies’ feedback to produce a report with recommendations on encouraging more business to Swindon.
Comments(39)
Robfm
says...
9:49am Sat 28 Jan 12
What complete and utter complacency.
You cannot make a silk purse out of a sows ear. That is what Swindon has become. You can spend millions of publicity and marketing agents but if there's nothing to market it's just good money after bad.
Stop talking and start doing, by firstly disbanding Forward Swindon. With the new LEP we simply do not need all the other talking shops. The local businesses can deal direct.
Knobfm
says...
10:03am Sat 28 Jan 12
It's empty at the moment because I haven't implemented my faultless, pioneering, unique marketing strategies yet.
I will launch it as soon as I have chosen an abbreviation for it.
It will probably be called
W A L T E R.
It can be seen here
Www. Iambob/whoknowsall/e
mptybar/liesalot/dro
nedrone
Meldrews Dad
says...
10:18am Sat 28 Jan 12
Get real SBC - kick out these squander mongers and start to empty dustbins weekly!
Taxpayers want services not dreams.
Cut council tax and economise by cutting your huge and excessive staffing.
StillPav
says...
10:51am Sat 28 Jan 12
.
Draw up a wish list of shops Forward Swindon/SBC want to attract to the town. I'll start you off with Office and an Apple Store.
.
Kick the junkies and illegal immigrants out of the Railway Village and rent the homes to young professionals.
.
Stop procrastinating about the Mechanics and the Lacarno and let the owners get on with their re-development plans.
.
There you go, four simple yet effective ideas which will cost very little to the taxpayer.
jamos01
says...
11:47am Sat 28 Jan 12
TinkeyWinkey
says...
12:15pm Sat 28 Jan 12
greenpacer
says...
12:25pm Sat 28 Jan 12
Robfm
says...
12:55pm Sat 28 Jan 12
As has been said build executive houses. It is supposed to be part of SBC's housing strategy already but when people want to build small clusters of these they are told to not bother applying by the planning department. WHY.
Knobfm
says...
3:05pm Sat 28 Jan 12
I did not get enough attention from my earlier comments so I will copy what somebody else wrote.
Build big houses. That should solve everything.
Personally I refuse to visit Swindon and shop in Swindon unless they build some big houses.
Robfm
says...
6:15pm Sat 28 Jan 12
Knobfm
says...
6:28pm Sat 28 Jan 12
I like everyone to know who I am so that they can marvel at my superior knowledge.
They will all flock to my pub for a pint of swill.
Last night I had upwards of 2 customers. I struggled to slope off to the back room for some keyboard commando action and a sneaky tipple.
Everyone else has got an anonymous brain.
Robfm
says...
6:46pm Sat 28 Jan 12
Anyway to work serving our non existent customers. Not likely to be the 50 or so diners of last night but hey can't have it every night.
Knobfm
says...
7:27pm Sat 28 Jan 12
I had a little party.
Everyone was there.
Action Man, Cindy, Barbie, Ken, Buzz Liar, a dozen play people, My Little Pony, Little Big Man, the Lego men.
About 50 in total so there.
I hardly got a chance to insult people from my laptop
Tonight might be just as good, but I've been told not to make a mess
Gelatine magic
says...
7:41pm Sat 28 Jan 12
Just another number
says...
8:02pm Sat 28 Jan 12
Maybe they'll even manage to remove the now rather sarcastic 'Your Swindon' signs that do nothing more now than point yet another hopeless venture that became just another Council failure.
MrAngry
says...
8:08pm Sat 28 Jan 12
Jim Royle
says...
8:10pm Sat 28 Jan 12
Punctured bicycle on a hillside
says...
8:48pm Sat 28 Jan 12
Robfm wrote:'Robfm' is an anonymous name, is it not?
Anonymous posters with anonymous or absent brains.
Just another number
says...
8:54pm Sat 28 Jan 12
Jim Royle wrote:That's easy... Rod Bluh, Gavin Jones, et. al... the town is being run by people with outrageous and impractical ambitions and little ability to manage even the most basic services for the town.
Not so long ago Swindon was the fastest growing tiwn in Europe. I it was so attractable then,why not now? what's changed.
I Too
says...
9:29pm Sat 28 Jan 12
It's as if councillors don't want to live here, so they want Swindon to be Milton Keynes or Slough
Just another number
says...
10:21pm Sat 28 Jan 12
Swindon didn't need Capita to run it's services, what it needed was someone to manage those services properly. What Gavin Jones wanted was his name on a big outsourcing deal so that his 'peers' would recognise him. And with the deal done in haste and without due consideration is it any wonder it's not the success it was claimed it would be? Swindon doesn't need someone with their own agenda, Swindon needs someone who cares about Swindon.
I would expect that very few of the top tier staff live in the Swindon. Is it any wonder that the Council fails to see and address the needs of the community when they aren't an active part of it?
I would expect the Councillors are much the same in that they probably only see the parts of Swindon between their homes and the Council offices. And like most of us probably choose to do most of their shopping somewhere else unless they need a pint of milk on the way home.
That £300k won't go far and won't achieve anything unless someone starts to care enough about Swindon that people begin to see real progress and start to trust that the Council is putting the real best interests of the community first.
I Too
says...
11:06pm Sat 28 Jan 12
itsamess
says...
3:04am Sun 29 Jan 12
Jim Royle wrote:The comments after your post on the issue Jim do show how Swindon has gone downwards.
Not so long ago Swindon was the fastest growing tiwn in Europe. I it was so attractable then,why not now? what's changed.
I am proud to say i am born and lived here all of my life--even whilst at uni i travelled back home for weekends and holidays. When i took up my first position i considered buying a house in Oxford to be closer to my job but found it easy enough to drive backwards and forwards If today i had just started my career i would have relocated.
I believe degeneration began here during the Bates/Small era that saw the selling off of the Brunel Centre--we had already seen the MI offered for £1 and refused and in my view a bad decision because despite quite a bit of refurbishment being needed it had great potential to once again become the hub of the railway village as it had a theatre-restaurants and ample rooms for all types of activities and within easy reach of the central area. The Old Corn Exchange/Locarno was allowed to go the same way. As did parts of the Goddard Estate--history being lost. The worst part of our history was the mid 80s when the railworks closed. The council prioritised building houses and turned part into the Outlet village--the other side they ripped up everything despite lots of rail heritage being on that plot including the magnificent turntable leaving only what became the brewery.
The walls came down opposite despite being listed--but of course they were accidentally damaged by a council friendly bulldozer used by a skip company tipping rubbishagainst the wall until it was damaged to render it unsafe. Why? Because the council wanted to build a road for a big housing project.
The Brunel was sold at a handsome figure and the Council ran a poll in the adver asking us what we wanted it spent on--top of the list a £7m library. Oops-sorry folks we spent most of the money when we became a Unitary Authority and had to pay off WCCs pension deficit as we took over some of their duties. Since that time Swindon has gone down and down and factories closed all over the town and office spaces grew and grew--and emptied very quickly. We have a centre full of empty shops and full of charity and cheapos-street traders driven out of town-half empty trading estates and our 2 biggest leisure centres in serious disrepair.
What is our current council doing to turn the tide--build more hotels-car parks--offices and social housing--despite major office blocks virtually yards away lying empty.
As said above all the major council services farmed out and dogged with problems--i am getting to wonder why we need staff in the council at all as there is very little to manage now. We still have dozens of committees as its extra income for the councillors--how many regeneration groups do we need? The now famous Old college with plans of all these new companies queueing to book spaces--but still not signed up yet--yep its coming down--no its not--yes it is--well maybe.
To me its just a shambles.
Robfm
says...
8:39am Sun 29 Jan 12
All you have done is repeated what many have said over many years, we all know what happened, what is needed is a radical new Council with vision, to build the houses people want to buy not the 'Little Boxes' of Pete Seeger fame that are being built, with no room to swing the proverbial cat.
As I said it is ironic that the big companies are asking for what SBC claim is part of their housing strategy. They seem not to know what their officers, are doing, or in housing terms, not doing, in their names.
Robfm
says...
8:44am Sun 29 Jan 12
Just for you: Anonymous (of a person) Not identified by name; of unknown name.
So are you now saying I am not who you have been saying I am during the last few years with your various different, anonymous, logins.
Just another number
says...
9:39am Sun 29 Jan 12
Can't you understand any issue well enough to post anything that might be interesting, useful, or sensible and on the topic?
I'd rather read a thousand anonymous posts, with whatever spelling or grammatical errors they may contain, than any bit of your worthless overbearing twaddle.
Punctured bicycle on a hillside
says...
10:09am Sun 29 Jan 12
Robfm wrote:Robfm is Robfm - means nothing more than Daniel10 to the uninitiated. To the initiated however it signifies your attempts to lie and deceive then have the temerity to accuse everyone else of exactly that.
Oh Punctured, how sad.
Just for you: Anonymous (of a person) Not identified by name; of unknown name.
So are you now saying I am not who you have been saying I am during the last few years with your various different, anonymous, logins.
You've gone out of your way over the years and through your various different logins to ensure they are associated with a dingy pub on the outskirts of Swindon and a constant outpouring of ill-informed guff, that's all.
You've made yourself into a total laughingstock Robert Feel-mentiroso with your incessant pompous buffoonery and blabbermouthed braggang.
You shat on your own doorstep and now you have to live with it.
I Too
says...
10:44am Sun 29 Jan 12
3:04am Sun 29 Jan 12, was very comprehensive and illustrated many ways that Swindon has tarnished its' identity.
Had it not been stamped on by the bored barman doing the internet equivalent of peeing in a corner it would give us much to discuss.
The type of dessicration mentioned in Itsamess post is still happening, despite houses no longer selling and the infrastructure at breaking point.
It is well and truly time to forget extravagent ideas and vanity projects.
Time to rescue Swindon from the roots upwards
I Too
says...
10:49am Sun 29 Jan 12
itsamess wrote:Let's try again :-)
Jim Royle wrote:The comments after your post on the issue Jim do show how Swindon has gone downwards.
Not so long ago Swindon was the fastest growing tiwn in Europe. I it was so attractable then,why not now? what's changed.
I am proud to say i am born and lived here all of my life--even whilst at uni i travelled back home for weekends and holidays. When i took up my first position i considered buying a house in Oxford to be closer to my job but found it easy enough to drive backwards and forwards If today i had just started my career i would have relocated.
I believe degeneration began here during the Bates/Small era that saw the selling off of the Brunel Centre--we had already seen the MI offered for £1 and refused and in my view a bad decision because despite quite a bit of refurbishment being needed it had great potential to once again become the hub of the railway village as it had a theatre-restaurants and ample rooms for all types of activities and within easy reach of the central area. The Old Corn Exchange/Locarno was allowed to go the same way. As did parts of the Goddard Estate--history being lost. The worst part of our history was the mid 80s when the railworks closed. The council prioritised building houses and turned part into the Outlet village--the other side they ripped up everything despite lots of rail heritage being on that plot including the magnificent turntable leaving only what became the brewery.
The walls came down opposite despite being listed--but of course they were accidentally damaged by a council friendly bulldozer used by a skip company tipping rubbishagainst the wall until it was damaged to render it unsafe. Why? Because the council wanted to build a road for a big housing project.
The Brunel was sold at a handsome figure and the Council ran a poll in the adver asking us what we wanted it spent on--top of the list a £7m library. Oops-sorry folks we spent most of the money when we became a Unitary Authority and had to pay off WCCs pension deficit as we took over some of their duties. Since that time Swindon has gone down and down and factories closed all over the town and office spaces grew and grew--and emptied very quickly. We have a centre full of empty shops and full of charity and cheapos-street traders driven out of town-half empty trading estates and our 2 biggest leisure centres in serious disrepair.
What is our current council doing to turn the tide--build more hotels-car parks--offices and social housing--despite major office blocks virtually yards away lying empty.
As said above all the major council services farmed out and dogged with problems--i am getting to wonder why we need staff in the council at all as there is very little to manage now. We still have dozens of committees as its extra income for the councillors--how many regeneration groups do we need? The now famous Old college with plans of all these new companies queueing to book spaces--but still not signed up yet--yep its coming down--no its not--yes it is--well maybe.
To me its just a shambles.
Just another number
says...
11:11am Sun 29 Jan 12
I Too wrote:I agree completely.
The post from itsamess at
3:04am Sun 29 Jan 12, was very comprehensive and illustrated many ways that Swindon has tarnished its' identity.
Had it not been stamped on by the bored barman doing the internet equivalent of peeing in a corner it would give us much to discuss.
The type of dessicration mentioned in Itsamess post is still happening, despite houses no longer selling and the infrastructure at breaking point.
It is well and truly time to forget extravagent ideas and vanity projects.
Time to rescue Swindon from the roots upwards
It may not be headline news for someone to dirty their hands sorting out everyday problems and rationalising the delivery of services in a way that eliminates wasted funds and ensures quality, but that's exactly what's needed. Not the selfish and wasteful attempts at empire building that we see in the Officers and Councillors at present.
It's time for hard work and solid and sustainable values, because that's what has been proven time and again to make a difference between progress or failure in a difficult economy.
Gelatine magic
says...
1:55pm Sun 29 Jan 12
itsamess
says...
4:10pm Sun 29 Jan 12
The people of Swindon would never elect you--despite your attempts as they could never trust you as you have your own agenda.
You have shown you are all wind and pi$$ in pretending to have all the solutions for swindon with facts and figures that do not stand scrutiny--calling everyone liars etc-yet caught out daily doing exactly that.
Punctured bicycle on a hillside
says...
8:56pm Sun 29 Jan 12
I Too
says...
9:01pm Sun 29 Jan 12
I Too
says...
10:39pm Sun 29 Jan 12
3:04am Sun 29 Jan 12 demonstrates clearly why this town is such a dump.
SBC need to stop regarding property developers as friends.
They clearly are not.
Time to save what is left of Swindons' heritage.
Remind visitors what Swindon had to be proud of.
Stop messing up the roads in order to pander to developers.
Leave Coate alone for the same reasons.
Save £300.000
A.Baron-Cohen
says...
9:01am Mon 30 Jan 12
I believe we need an elected Mayor. Would Mr Bluh be elected?
Always Grumpy
says...
12:21pm Mon 30 Jan 12
I Too wrote:I won't be holding my breath waiting for something to be done.
On topic again, The post from itsamess at
3:04am Sun 29 Jan 12 demonstrates clearly why this town is such a dump.
SBC need to stop regarding property developers as friends.
They clearly are not.
Time to save what is left of Swindons' heritage.
Remind visitors what Swindon had to be proud of.
Stop messing up the roads in order to pander to developers.
Leave Coate alone for the same reasons.
Save £300.000
The problem is and has been for a long time, a bunch of talentless amateurs running the town. While the current councillors, from all political parties, remain in power, the town will continue in it's downward spiral.
Ringer
says...
3:29pm Mon 30 Jan 12
Jim Royle wrote:That was during the period where developers were throwing up cheap housing all around the outskirts of the town and even more prison-style flats in the town area. That was when people could still get mortgages by plucking a salary figure out of thin air and the banks believed them, or, rather, the banks nodded, winked and processed the loan.
Not so long ago Swindon was the fastest growing tiwn in Europe. I it was so attractable then,why not now? what's changed.
Now we have a town that is full of people who can't pay back mortgages on cheap houses and who have no money to spend in the local economy. Now Swindon is really in a pickle.
As others have already mentioned, £300,000 is nowhere near enough to even raise a blip of profile about the town, let alone to actually achieve any long-term shift in perceptions.
It's likely that Swindon Town managing to gain promotion this year would have far more of a positive effect on the town's profile than anything this £300,000 might be spent on.
A.Baron-Cohen
says...
3:41pm Mon 30 Jan 12
Ringer wrote:A very bad case of "not fixing the roof when the sun was shining" D Cameron
Jim Royle wrote:That was during the period where developers were throwing up cheap housing all around the outskirts of the town and even more prison-style flats in the town area. That was when people could still get mortgages by plucking a salary figure out of thin air and the banks believed them, or, rather, the banks nodded, winked and processed the loan.
Not so long ago Swindon was the fastest growing tiwn in Europe. I it was so attractable then,why not now? what's changed.
Now we have a town that is full of people who can't pay back mortgages on cheap houses and who have no money to spend in the local economy. Now Swindon is really in a pickle.
As others have already mentioned, £300,000 is nowhere near enough to even raise a blip of profile about the town, let alone to actually achieve any long-term shift in perceptions.
It's likely that Swindon Town managing to gain promotion this year would have far more of a positive effect on the town's profile than anything this £300,000 might be spent on.
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