Views of Swindon public to feed into Council’s priorities for coming years

One of the biggest engagement exercises carried out by Swindon Borough Council in recent years will be discussed by councillors next week (13 March).

‘Let’s talk Swindon’, a borough-wide engagement exercise sought views from the public throughout January and February on the draft Swindon Plan, which aims to deliver on the administration’s three priority missions for the Borough.

The missions to Reduce Inequality, Build a Better Swindon and Achieve Net Zero underpin the work of the Council and drive everything that it does.

The draft Plan proposed initial activity over the next three years to progress each of the missions, but feedback from those who took part in the engagement exercise will now be taken on board to reshape what some of the priorities look like.

The initial findings will be presented to the Council’s Cabinet next Wednesday.

Hundreds of people gave their views on the draft Swindon Plan through a number of engagement events and via an online engagement hub.

In total 157 residents attended seven events across the Borough and feedback from residents who attended was positive.

Alongside the in-person engagement events, a new online engagement platform was launched at the start of January with more than 500 residents visiting the platform to read the plan and share ideas.

Throughout the engagement exercise, differing views on the three missions were shared, including a proposal that the town centre needs reimagining into a destination that attracts people and increases pride in the town.

The Council also received comments on how housing could fit into the town centre and ideas about regeneration, including building a university.

Residents also mentioned the levels of crime across the town, with a need to understand the reality of safety against perception and media coverage.

Ideas were also shared on the importance of improving leisure and cultural facilities, most notably the Oasis, Wyvern Theatre and Health Hydro, and protecting green spaces across Swindon through additional funding for schemes, such as tree planting.

Councillor Jim Robbins, Leader of Swindon Borough Council, said: “I said at the start of this engagement process that we wanted to have proper conversations with local people so the priorities we have for the town fit in with what they want to see delivered.

“We had an amazing response and we received some fantastic feedback. Some of the responses will be discussed at Cabinet next week, but we will be doing a thorough analysis of all the comments and views before bringing the final Swindon Plan back to Cabinet in the summer.

“We want local people to feel involved in the decisions that affect them as residents and this was a great example of how we are moving the dial on resident engagement and delivering on our three missions for the benefit of the whole borough.”