Your council

Swindon: what’s happening where you live

What the council itself has published on the five things it most shapes for a household: homes, getting about, the bill, the local environment and schools. Each line is quoted from the council’s own document, with the link. This page says what was decided or proposed; it never says whether it was right.

This page is built from official registers only; the council’s own publications have not been read yet, and every line below says so where that leaves a gap.

Swindon Borough Council: Unitary authority (unitary), England, South West. GOV.UK lists it as a unitary council. ONS code E06000030.

Council website · Publication scheme

Do it online

The council’s own service pages as listed by GOV.UK’s Local Links Manager (Open Government Licence), refreshed weekly; the same list of everyday services, in the same order, for every council, in GOV.UK’s wording.

Housing

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Transport

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Council tax

Band D set by Swindon for 2026–27: £1,866.50 of a £2,438.10 total bill in the area. MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027 (Open Government Licence).

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Environment

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Education

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Changes to schools in this area recorded by the Department for Education Updated automatically

No school here is currently recorded as proposed to open or close.

In the last twelve months: 1 opened (1 academy converter), 1 closed (1 academy converter)

East Wichel Primary School & Nursery (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 March 2026
Lift East Wichel (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 April 2026

Get Information about Schools, DfE’s register of every school in England, refreshed daily (Open Government Licence). The register’s own reason is shown: most closures and openings are a school becoming an academy, which changes who runs it, not whether it is there.

What the council plans to spend, 2026–27

The budget for each service, as Swindon reported it to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The same headings, in the same order, for every council in England.

Swindon: budget by service, 2026 to 2027
Service	Budget
Education services	£138.3 million
Highways and transport services	£8.1 million
Children's social care	£90.9 million
Adult social care	£113.8 million
Public health	£15.7 million
Housing services (general fund only)	£10.3 million
Cultural and related services	£5.3 million
Environmental and regulatory services	£21.1 million
Planning and development services	£3.3 million
Police services	none budgeted
Fire and rescue services	none budgeted
Central services	£4.7 million
Other services	none budgeted
Total service expenditure	£411.4 million

Net current expenditure: net of sales, fees and charges; spending funded by the NHS, such as through the Better Care Fund, is excluded.A minus figure means the service’s income is budgeted to be more than its spending. “None budgeted” usually means another body runs that service here. Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Revenue Account Budget 2026 to 2027, individual local authority data (part 1), updated 11 June 2026 (Open Government Licence).

Swindon in numbers

Official statistics for the whole council area. Each figure is the latest published, with the period it covers.

Total population: 243,875 people 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMid-year estimate of the total number of people
Median age: 39 years 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMedian age of people
Gross disposable household income per head: £22,956 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage income per person (£) after taxes and direct benefits
Gross median weekly pay: £653 30 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsGross median weekly pay based on where people live (£)
Children in relative poverty after housing costs: 22.6% April 2024 to March 2025 · Department for Work and PensionsPercentage of children aged under 16 living in relative low income families After Housing Costs (AHC)
Claimant Count: 3.3% 2025 · Office for National StatisticsPercentage of people aged 16 to 64 who are claiming unemployment-related benefits
Average house price: £263,611 July 2026 · HM Land RegistryAverage monthly price of a property (£)
Housing affordability ratio (residence-based): 7.2 affordability ratio 1 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsRatio of median house price to median gross annual residence-based earnings
Female healthy life expectancy: 61.4 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for females born in the given year
Male healthy life expectancy: 61.5 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for males born in the given year
Greenhouse gas emissions: 3.8 tCO2e per capita 2024 · Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroGreenhouse gas emissions (tCO2e) per capita
Gigabit capable broadband: 96.9% 1 January 2026 · OfcomPercentage of premises that have coverage from a gigabit-capable service (download speeds of 1,000 Mbps or more)
Public electric vehicle chargers: 137.8 per 100,000 population 1 July 2026 · Department for Transport, sourced from ZapmapPublicly available electric vehicle chargers at all speeds per 100,000 people
Active businesses: 7,780 number of enterprises 2024 · Office for National StatisticsBusinesses with turnover or employment in current year

Gathered by the Office for National Statistics in Explore Local Statistics (Open Government Licence), refreshed daily. Some figures aren’t published for every nation, so the list can be shorter outside England.

Who runs the council

57 seats in 2026. Run by: Conservatives, as a minority administration. Open Council Data (public domain).

Councillors by party: Conservative and Unionist 23, Labour Party 19, Reform UK 14, Liberal Democrats 1.

Next scheduled council election: 2 May 2030.

All 57 councillors, by ward

Mike Davies (Labour Party) — Badbury Park, Eldene & Liden
Rebecca Banwell-Moore (Labour Party) — Badbury Park, Eldene & Liden
Simon Howard (Reform UK) — Badbury Park, Eldene & Liden
Nick Gardiner (Conservative and Unionist) — Blunsdon
Adorabelle Shaikh (Labour Party) — Broadgreen
Anabelle Pegado (Conservative and Unionist) — Broadgreen
Gary Sumner (Conservative and Unionist) — Chiseldon & Ridgeway
Matt Hinton (Conservative and Unionist) — Chiseldon & Ridgeway
Barbara Parry (Conservative and Unionist) — Covingham & Nythe
Kevin Parry (Conservative and Unionist) — Covingham & Nythe
Princia Fernandes (Labour Party) — Gorse Hill
Anthony Hedges (Reform UK) — Haydon Wick
James Head (Reform UK) — Haydon Wick
Stanka Wilson (Labour Party) — Haydon Wick
Steve Weisinger (Conservative and Unionist) — Highworth
Vijay Manro (Conservative and Unionist) — Highworth
Chris Watts (Labour Party) — Kingshill
Janine Howarth (Labour Party) — Kingshill
Andrew Cripps (Reform UK) — Lower Stratton
Marco Di Pinto (Conservative and Unionist) — Lower Stratton
Roger Smith (Conservative and Unionist) — Lower Stratton
Cathy Williamson (Reform UK) — Lydiard, Freshbrook & Toothill
Colin Lovell (Reform UK) — Lydiard, Freshbrook & Toothill
Matthew Goulding (Reform UK) — Lydiard, Freshbrook & Toothill
Jim Robbins (Labour Party) — Old Town & Lawn
Nadine Watts (Labour Party) — Old Town & Lawn
Neil Hopkins (Labour Party) — Old Town & Lawn
Jocelina D'Souza (Labour Party) — Parks
Sara Godwin (Reform UK) — Parks
Mark Bogard (Reform UK) — Penhill & Pinehurst
Martyn Pearce (Reform UK) — Penhill & Pinehurst
Alex Hughes (Conservative and Unionist) — Priory Vale
Leanne Stevenson (Conservative and Unionist) — Priory Vale
Vinay Manro (Conservative and Unionist) — Priory Vale
Imtiyaz Shaikh (Labour Party) — Queen's Park
Marina Strinkovsky (Labour Party) — Queen's Park
Paul Dixon (Labour Party) — Queen's Park
Derek O'Hanlon (Reform UK) — Rodbourne Cheney
Lawrence Davies (Reform UK) — Rodbourne Cheney
Ana Fernandes (Labour Party) — Rodbourne Ferndale & Western
Jim Grant (Labour Party) — Rodbourne Ferndale & Western
Kevin Small (Labour Party) — Rodbourne Ferndale & Western
Keith Williams (Conservative and Unionist) — Shaw & Westlea
Nandini Singh (Conservative and Unionist) — Shaw & Westlea
Suresh Gattapur (Conservative and Unionist) — Shaw & Westlea
Matthew Vallender (Conservative and Unionist) — South Marston
Jake Chandler (Conservative and Unionist) — St Andrews East
Kate Tomlinson (Conservative and Unionist) — St Andrews East
Cherie Adams (Conservative and Unionist) — St Andrews West & Tadpole
Daniel Adams (Conservative and Unionist) — St Andrews West & Tadpole
Gordon Slade (Reform UK) — Upper Stratton
Mark Ratcliffe (Reform UK) — Upper Stratton
Abdul Amin (Labour Party) — Walcot
Emma Bushell (Labour Party) — Walcot
Gayle Cook (Conservative and Unionist) — Wroughton & Wichelstowe
Martin Barrett (Liberal Democrats) — Wroughton & Wichelstowe
Matty Courtliff (Conservative and Unionist) — Wroughton & Wichelstowe

Each councillor’s register of interests is on the council’s own website; we have not yet located the page. Councillors from Open Council Data as recorded after the May 2026 elections; a by-election since then may have changed one seat. Attendance and allowances are not shown.

This council’s meeting papers are not yet read automatically, so decisions and motions are not listed here; they are on the council’s website.

Write to your councillors → WriteToThem (mySociety) finds them from your postcode; nothing is sent through this site.

Cite this page

Harvard style. Every figure on the page also names its original source, which is usually the better thing to cite.

Every council page has the same five headings in the same order. Sources are the council’s own publications and official statistics. Council list: mySociety, UK Local Authorities (CC BY 4.0) and WhatDoTheyKnow authorities (CC BY-SA 4.0); council websites, tiers and service links: GOV.UK (Open Government Licence); codes: ONS Code History Database (Open Government Licence). Corrections: hello@whatsittome.org.