Report lifts lid on future plans

From the archive, first published Wednesday 28th Sep 2005.

MORE details of the changes to Swindon Services have been revealed. A report into the future of the council department, which provides services ranging from cemeteries to leisure centres, is still being kept secret but some details of it have now come to light.

A report going to tomorrow's full council meeting provides an update on the situation, confirming that greater involvement of the private sector is expected in what is now called Swindon Commercial Services.

It also refers to changes in management made as a result of a review by external consultants.

But Swindon Council insists former Swindon Services director John Short, who resigned in July, was not forced out. "Recommendations were made about the way Swindon Commercial Services should be organised in the future," said council leader Coun Mike Bawden (Con, Old Town and Lawn).

"Following discussions with John Short it was decided that this was a point at which he felt it appropriate to leave the council and he agreed it needed a fresh approach. Swindon Commercial Services needs to be modernised to meet the Government's agenda on best value. John thought it was probably time to allow a younger person to come in and pick up the challenge."

And Coun Bawden insisted that the review did not criticise Mr Short, who had run the department for 14 years.

"John Short ran a very good organisation in the way that Swindon Borough Council asked him to run it.

"Following a review that was agreed with Government monitoring officers, it was established that to modernise Swindon Services numerous changes needed to take place. In his late 50s John didn't think he necessarily wanted to go through that process."

The report also says that certain services will be subject to competitive tendering and that a greater involvement of the private sector is anticipated. But Coun Bawden said that would help provide the best value services.

"One of the areas in which we were criticised in the CPA (Corporate Performance Assessment) was `were we using our money in the most efficient way?'" said Coun Bawden.

"The answer as far as Swindon Commercial Services was concerned was it was not being exposed to the private sector as much as it should have been. The present Government and the Conservative administration believe that organisations like Swindon Commercial Services need to be reorganised in a far more efficient way."

Swindon Commerical Services is becoming an arms-length contractor with a new supervisory board.

Swindon Services was formed in 2000 after Swindon Contractors and Recreation Services merged to become one department. It meant the department then included a wide range of services ranging from refuse collection and recycling to parks and leisure facilities.

Cemeteries and crematoria, building maintenance, school buildings and footpath and road works are also included in the portfolio.

Isabel Field

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