Essential council services which help the most vulnerable people in Swindon will be unaffected by Wednesday’s industrial action.
It has been agreed with the unions that sheltered housing wardens, mental health professionals, the council’s Homeline service and emergency services in the council’s Children’s Services team will be among the key services exempt from industrial action.
The Register Office will be open as normal to carry out the registration of births, deaths and marriages and Kingsdown Crematorium and the borough’s cemeteries will also be open.
A number of cultural centres will be open as usual on Wednesday including Create Studios, the Arts Centre and Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, but STEAM will be closed to the public. All the town’s parks are expected to be open including Coate Water, Stanton Park and Lydiard Park. The council’s offices at Wat Tyler House and the Civic Offices in Euclid Street will remain open.
It is anticipated that all of the council’s leisure centres will be generally open. The exceptions are:
- The Link Centre pool will be closed to the public all day
- There will be no public ice skating session at the Link Centre between 7.30pm and 9.30pm.
- The Health Hydro will not open its doors to the public until 11.30am.
- Dorcan Recreation Complex will not open until 2.30pm tomorrow as it has no bookings due to Dorcan Technology College being closed. The leisure centre will be open as normal from 2.30pm.
All libraries which are open on Wednesdays will be open as usual, apart from the mobile library.
The council is, however, warning residents there may be some disruption to the waste collection service. General refuse will be collected as a priority on Wednesday and contractors will aim to collect as much waste as possible.
Anyone who does not get their general waste collected, will only receive the service on their next scheduled collection date due to regulations which prohibit staff from covering duties which have previously been disrupted because of industrial action.
There will be disruption to the kerbside recycling service as a result of the industrial action, but the Household Waste Recycling Centre is expected to be open as normal between 8am and 4.30pm. It is also anticipated that public toilets in the town centre will be open, but those elsewhere in the borough will be closed. It is hoped that the town’s car parks will be open as normal.
Cllr Keith Williams, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Leisure and Corporate Services, said: “The council provides an enormous range of services so I am pleased we have been able to keep so many of them running, particularly those that are needed by the most vulnerable in our community.
“However, we appreciate there will be some disruption to services on Wednesday and I would ask people to check the council’s website for the latest updates.”
Find out the latest information on school closures.
All other information on other council services which are affected by the industrial action.