Entertainment Swindon

This week, Leader of Swindon Council, Jim Robbins conduct has been questioned again, this time with abuse of power only 26months after coming to power in May 2023.

A letter made public across social media from Tory Councillors Gary Sumner and Dale Heenan this week to Chief Executive Sam Mowbray and Chief Legal Officer Lisa Hall, showed that both Cllr Kevin Small and Cllr Jim Robbins have personally put pressure on Labour councillors within the Planning Committee reference the Oasis and the plans to build high rise flats and demolish the much loved sports hall.

Speaking to our sources at the council, including members that were at the meeting, confirmed that Cllr Robbins had threatened the party whip to pressure the committee members on the Labour side to vote each proposal through.

Swindonian’s having now read the letter have taken to Facebook, on the Save Oasis Swindon page showing disgust and zero trust in the council and politicians in general.

Comments included: Chris Keeble “When I talk about corruption in politics, this is part of it. Jim Robbins is part of the problem, no matter how you try and package it up”.

Another comment from Pete Trinci “Politics = Greed & Corruption, The taxpayers deserve much better than this “

Comments went on and on of distrust in the current administration and politics in general, including this comment from Melanie Creighton “Disgusting! All in it for their own agendas! Can’t anyone be in a position of trust just do what’s right and proper for once!

They all start off with good intentions then the morals/common sense/integrity all bugger off!

And what’s funny is they think nobody sees!”.

The behaviour from Cllr Robbins and Cllr Small goes against ‘Key Principles of Councillor Conduct in Planning’, including the requirement to avoid predetermination and to refrain from lobbying members of the Planning Committee, with Pre-Meetings, pressure verbally and or by email are unacceptable.

Speaking to Tory councillors today, they have repeatedly called for a cross party working group since as early as February 2024, however Jim Robbins and Kevin Small have flat down denied this chance to come together and work together. We approached Jim Robbins, however we had no reply as we like many others have been blocked on all methods of communication.

The controversial plans that came to a head on July 8th at the committee meeting with the vote to knock down the Oasis Sports Hall going down party lines with 7 votes to 3 in favour of the proposal. Although the plans for the 707 flats was rejected as 3 Labour cllrs on the committee joined the vote against, with 6 total votes against the proposal, which means Swindon’s Labour Administration are back to the drawing board with egg on their faces and questions to answer on Leadership conduct.

Speaking to Neil Robinson, founder of the Save Oasis Campaign said: “As a campaign we have said for years that the Oasis site is totally unsuitable for housing, because of the listed status of the Dome, it doesn’t work

You can’t surround a listed building with tower blocks, it doesn’t work, its not compatible, and they’ve tried to pack too many flats into the site, resulting in the public open space at the Oasis that was used for leisure, obviously the football pitches, the BMX track, all that space will be lost because of this. So now there’s a chance now with the housing proposal voted against, that they can keep the hall at the Oasis, because we all know that was why they wanted the hall gone, because they wanted the space for the housing.

Now they can’t build the housing, the hall can be re-instated into new plans for the Oasis and they can build houses across the road and ultimately we are calling for an investigation into the Oasis saga, this has been going on nearly 5years now and we are still nowhere near to it opening and we need the hall, the council have ignored the campaign, and many hundreds of residents are calling for the hall to be retained at the Oasis, there was 1700 petition signatures, nearly 500 objections, submitted in.

There was objections from Sport England there was breaches of the MPFF, the Local Plan, so the odds are against them now, but there are certain councillors that have been pressuring the planning committee to get them all approved. There really should be an investigation now into the pressure from Jim Robbins and Kevin Small applying pressure onto the planning committee to get these applications pushed through, the whole thing is an absolute disaster, as we are now in a situation where they could demolish the hall, the hall demolition needs to be stopped!”.