THE council’s regeneration arm has missed half of its self-proclaimed objectives.

That is the claim of the town’s Labour party, which says Forward Swindon has come nowhere near meeting the 27 targets it set itself when it was founded just over a year ago.

The Labour group has picked out 14 of the objectives in its Year One delivery plan which it says are not met. These range from starting demolition of the former college building, in Regent Circus. by the start of spring, to more obscure targets on finance and culture.

It has a budget of £1m-plus and a staff of 11, and was set up in March last year to regenerate the town. Now Labour is questioning whether it was worth the money.

Ian Piper, Forward Swindon’s chief executive, referred the Adver to cabinet regeneration chief Garry Perkins (Con, Shaw and Nine Elms) for comment.

Coun Perkins is also on the board of Forward Swindon.

“It’d be easy to put down outcomes which could easily be achieved, and everybody could pat themselves on the back,” he said.

“Objectives should stretch you. I think Forward Swindon has done a lot to put the bricks in place to start building bridges between developers and Swindon Council. There’s a long way to go in terms of putting together the full regeneration.

“It seems to be the sport in Swindon to try to knock it down rather than support it.”

Coun Perkins said that he regretted that not all of the objectives had been met and admitted that he was not sure the targets for year one run from the date of Forward Swindon’s incorporation last March.

In a statement, Labour leader Jim Grant said: “It is clearly concerning that a council-tax payer funded company has failed to meet 50 per cent of its delivery targets for its first year.

“This only provides further support to the Labour group’s argument that there needs to be a thorough value-for-money review of Forward Swindon, and an assessment on whether the areas of economic development, cultural development and regeneration can be better delivered by Swindon Council, in consultation with local businesses, community groups and key stakeholders.

“I do not believe it is the fault of the staff that works for Forward Swindon that the company have failed to meet its targets, but is instead the fault of the overly-complex system they have been asked by Swindon council’s current administration to operate in.”

Coun Grant said the failed projects are in the Forward Swindon Business Plan, which is available to view at www.forwardswindon.co.uk/pdfs/FSBusinessPlan.pdf, under the heading “Year 1 Delivery Plan”.