Polling stations will open at 7am on Thursday and will shut at 10pm. As they open, so does the last chance to keep Lydiard Park and House in public control.
We all know that Lydiard Park,as well as Swindon's other Country Parks – Coate Water and Stanton Park – is much loved by local residents who have invested in it through their council tax for years.
Swindon's Conservative Council are in the middle of a process to offload Lydiard Park and House to the private sector, a policy that the Swindon Labour Party have been campaigning against alongside local residents and the Friends of Lydiard. The public outcry against the plans has been overwhelming, but the Conservative Councillors are ignoring public opinion and are committed to carrying out the outsourcing project.
The leader of Swindon's Labour Councillors, Jim Grant, has been very clear in setting out the Labour position on Lydiard:
"Swindon Labour knows how important Lydiard Park and House are to the town. If we are elected on Thursday, the first thing I will do on Friday morning is stop the process to offload Lydiard. We have identified the savings necessary to keep the Park and House in public control, and proposed these in our budget proposal that the Conservatives rejected.
"We will work with the newly formed Lydiard Park Heritage Trust to make sure that the Park stays in public control and that it can be enjoyed by generations of Swindonians to come.
"The only way to guarantee that Lydiard is not given away is to vote for your local Labour candidate on Thursday."
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