"Not being sold" is not the same as remaining under Council ownership and control and we are clear that what the two Group Leaders are promising is not the same thing, either over Lydiard or over the leisure centres, where the Conservatives are proposing to give them away on 99 year leases.
A Conservative motion going before Swindon Borough Council's full council meeting this evening accuses Labour of scaremongering but we do not believe that we have been doing any such thing. We are very concerned about the Conservative administration off-loading all Swindon's leisure assets. Lydiard was identified last year as "needing further commercialization" and the Swindon Advertiser ran a long story on it potentially being sold off on the 4th December, which was was not denied until now, when an election is approaching.
"Not being sold" is not the same as remaining under Council ownership and control and we are clear that what the two Group Leaders are promising is not the same thing, either over Lydiard or over the leisure centres, where the Conservatives are proposing to give them away on 99 year leases. We think the motion is contradictory in that it says the Conservatives have no plans to sell Lydiard but then talks about investigating setting up a trust. We consider that the best protection for Council assets is for them to remain under Council ownership and control.
The motion is implicitly threatening us with bringing the Council into disrepute. We do not believe that councillors honestly campaigning about issues that matter to them and to their residents would do any such thing.