Swindon council could borrow £5m to help save the Oasis Leisure Centre Millions of pounds might be made available by Swindon Borough Council to help reopen the Oasis centre. Swindon Borough Council’s cabinet member for finance Russell Holland will present his formal budget proposals to the Conservative cabinet tonight and has added an item which could see the council borrow up to £5m in order to help a commercial leisure provider who might want to run the centre in North Start. Coun Holland said: “This amendment is adding an additional £5 million to the capital programme which could be made available as part of a wider commercial arrangement to ensure the future of the Oasis or as part of a wider leisure strategy.
Council tax in Swindon will go up by 5 per cent next year
Remorseless rise in council tax Coun Russell Holland infers that he has no sense of guilt in recommending a planned 4.99 per cent rise in Council Tax this despite inflation in September 2020 being a mere 0.7 per cent with a twelve month average of 0.5 per cent. Just imagine what Coun Holland would be asking for if the inflation figures were in the region of 4 or 5 per cent. The so-called justification for the huge rise is said to be as a result of the extra spending on adult social care, and the council’s obligation towards young people. This is the same tired old argument used in years past.
Manchester United star Marcus Rashford is spearheading the push to end child food poverty in the UK. Picture: PA
SWINDON will have its own food justice champion after councillors agreed to a cross-party initiative. The idea was put to last week s full council meeting by Labour s Paul Dixon and seconded by the Conservative council’s deputy leader Russell Holland, who already oversees the authority’s small social inclusion team. Coun Dixon s motion said three million UK children are at risk of hunger in school holidays according to the Trussell Trust, and there was a near doubling of food parcels delivered by food banks across the country between February and October 2020.