Yes folks i am back and on familiar territory aswell, Tadpole Farm to be precise. i recently submitted a Freedom Of Information request to Swindon Borough Council in regards to official meetings held between the developer and the council itself…….this is what i found out.
- The first meeting was held on 25th January 2010 at the Swindon Borough Council Civic Offices.
- The second meeting was held on 3rd December 2010.
- Both meetings were information sharing exercises between developers and the Council where developers presented information to the
Council. - No minutes were taken for either meeting.
This of course isnt the full set of data…..ill get to the rest later on.
Lets have a look at the first 4 points. On the 1st of March 2010 The Link Magazine reported that several council members were spurred into action after recieving complaints from concerned residents……one interesting point, it seems that Council Leader Roderick Bluh, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Transportation Peter Greenhalgh , North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson and Vera Tomlinson were seriously relaxed over the whole issue. Now while it may look like the Council were spurred into action, in-fact they could have been sipping tea and talking absolute crap (which wouldn’t be a surprise).
To add further insult to injury, no minutes were held for the entire meeting? which begs the question, was it official or not? in my view if no notes were taken how can you justify the use of public funds to hold a more then likely useless meeting in which you cannot possibly know that the issues you have put across to the council are being addressed, the quill pen of the local administration writes another secret line. But seeing as the council has only had 2 ‘official’ meetings which were both Information Sharing Exercises, their input into the whole situation is somewhat minimalist .
The January 2010 meeting was attended by:
- Cllr Rod Bluh as Leader of the Council
- Cllr Peter Greenhalgh as Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Transport
- Justin Tomlinson as Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for North Swindon
- Cllr Vera Tomlinson as Ward Member for Abbey Meads
Now while im looking at the attendance list for the first meeting in January, i do find it a little suspect that only 2 North Swindon councillors were present at the meeting…..i wonder if any other north swindon councillors knew of the meeting and or were invited?. Unsurprisingly this is not the first time councillors have not been invited to meetings that affect their wards (E.G Section 106 monies being moved out of the ward kitty into other wards). While they may have followed the correct procedure it is at best ethically sketchy for the council to do so, as those monies would be best served in the ward they were allocated to.
The December 2010 meeting was attended by:
- Cllr Rod Bluh as Leader of the Council
- Cllr Peter Greenhalgh as Cabinet Member for Sustainability, Strategic Planning, Property and Transport
- Cllr Vera Tomlinson as Ward Member for Abbey Meads
In this meeting the attendance is slightly different , Justin Tomlinson is not present which leaves Vera Tomlinson as the ONLY North Swindon councillor, still very very interesting as no other councillors were invited to the Information Sharing Exercise and again no minutes were held for theis ‘official’ meeting which again means that information cannot be passed around local councillors and the electorate. It is very interesting to see that Rod Bluh, Peter Greenhalgh , Vera Tomlinson and Justin Tomlinson are using this as nothing more then a possible vote gaining exercise to gain a double win with the reciept of Section 106 Monies. BUT i think the electorate are rather more intelligent then the council gives them.
So in summary there were ‘official’ meetings where information was exchanged between the council and the developers but no notes were taken so it was a pointless exercise to even begin with, i wonder if any of the people present can remember what was discussed at the meeting in January?….probably not.
