Two issues come to mind this week illustrating the sheer breadth of activities with which the Council has to deal. The first is how we allocate secondary school places and the second covers the renewal of subscriptions for the green waste recycling service.

I am delighted that my colleague who is the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Councillor Fionuala Foley, has reported another successful year. In fact, we offered 95.6 per cent of children a place at their most preferred secondary school. This is a slight improvement on last year’s figure of 94.2 per cent.

Overall, 99.2 per cent of children found a place at one of their preferred schools.

This is a great achievement. I would like to thank all the parents who made sure they submitted their forms on time. I would also like to pay tribute to our small but dedicated team who have processed these applications and managed to match the different desires of parents with the school places we have available.

Only one of the Borough’s secondary schools is still a maintained school while the rest have become academies. This success in allocating places shows the benefits of the good working relationships here in Swindon when compared to elsewhere. For example, in London over one third of children do not get into their first preference school.

By way of contrast, this week also sees the renewal of the Council’s green waste subscription service. I would encourage all of you who used it last year to renew and for anyone who will have to dispose of garden waste to join in. The scheme allows us to use our collection vehicles more efficiently as well as ending the old system where residents with no gardens at all, or very small ones, had to subsidise those with large ones. I am pleased to see that in a number of places that neighbours are working together to share the cost of bins, especially where they will not have a lot of waste.

Let me make it clear that this service is no excuse for fly-tipping. We will be seeking to identify and prosecute those who commit this type of “envirocrime”. May I urge anyone who sees fly-tipped waste to report it in the usual way by email customerservices@swindon.gov.uk or by phone (01793) 445501.

However, please be patient if the waste is not removed immediately. We may need a little time to gather evidence of who has dumped the rubbish in the first place, and where the courts convict, we will be seeking to publicise these cases in the media.