Councillor Brian Mattock: Since Councillor Renard is away from the office for a few days, it is my opportunity as Deputy Leader to offer a few reflections on the Council.

AS readers of this newspaper will know, we were not successful in our bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the money to build a new Swindon Museum and Art Gallery.

We are all disappointed, especially as the HLF recognised the quality of our art collection and that our current facility is obsolete.

However, it is not uncommon for bids not to get through at the first attempt.

We aren’t going to give up, because we have come as far in the 12 months since we began our work on the bid as some projects achieve in several years.

We will be meeting the HLF in the next month to find out in more detail what they consider the strengths of our bid are, and what we need to work on further to convince them to part with their money.

Despite the setback, we should be grateful that they demand such high standards, because they are giving away money that has been donated by everyone who does the lottery. We would all expect it to be spent appropriately.

It is always important to remember why the Museum and Art Gallery matters. Firstly, over many years we have built up a distinctive collection.

Some of our works of art are on loan and hang alongside contributions from the big internationally-recognised galleries.

Secondly, it is a matter of civic pride. Over the past 11 years, the Council Administration has concentrated on making sure that people mention Swindon as a successful, high-achieving Borough. For example, our school building programme means we are one of the top local authorities for ensuring that children have a school place. Our elections team managed the count so superbly that we were the second borough in the country to declare a parliamentary election result.

Having a modern museum and art gallery will complement this trend in making sure that people see Swindon as a special place.

Lastly, but not least, having a modern museum and art gallery helps secure our role as one of Britain’s economic powerhouses. If you visit any vibrant town or city in the UK or the world, you will know that it has more to offer than factories and houses. Swindon already has the distinctive art collection that means that we can compete with older cities. All we want is a proper place in which to display it.

All of these reasons show why we will be revising our plans and we will make a submission next year. This is too important for the borough for us to stop now.