The party leaders candidates explain vote for them and independent why you should and their party

Ed Gerrard, chairman of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)

UKIP stands for bringing government back to where it belongs – with the people.

We believe in power for local people over their councils and for local councils over central government.

Elected councillors should put their communities, not party politics first. Important local issues should be put to binding local referendums. Councils should be there to serve their communities, not just spend their money.

Local government is under attack, central government insists that councils cut spending whilst greedy council executives pay themselves huge salaries whilst slashing frontline services.

The PC brigade in local government go on creating non-jobs while cutting care for the elderly and vulnerable.

Meanwhile the long arm of the EU is increasingly reaching beyond Westminster into the town hall and council chambers.

If you want to know just how much the non-democratic EU now controls local government, please visit www.ukip.org Increasingly UKIP is recognised as the party with an honest, fresh approach to government at all levels. If you also believe that a fresh approach is necessary then please vote for your UKIP candidates at the Swindon Council election today.

Jim Grant, leader of Swindon Labour group.

LABOUR believes that your local Conservative-controlled council has been out of touch with what people want from their council.

This was clearly shown with the £4m they wasted on changing the town centre roundabout- which led to traffic chaos – and the £1m they wasted on wi-fi, the town centre water fountain and the unnecessary housing stock transfer ballot.

Swindon Labour are offering a chance for voters to move away from the council’s wasteful policies of the past. If you vote Labour in the council elections our policies will be based on four priorities.

  • Delivering value for money for Swindon Council taxpayers – supporting the council-tax freeze this year and increasing the council’s potholes budget.
  • Restoring trust in the council from Swindon’s communities – ensuring the council is fully transparent and properly consulting local communities
  • Retaining and attracting jobs – prioritising council jobs for working people over expensive consultants and working with Swindon’s major employers to attract their supplier companies to Swindon
  • Protecting Swindon’s vulnerable people – ensuring the care provided for Swindon’s elderly and disabled people isn’t reduced as a result of inevitable budget cuts If you vote Labour our policies will be based on these priorities, starting from day one.

Stan Pajak, leader of Swindon Liberal Democrat group

FOR the first time in more than a decade all the councillors are up for election. This is an opportunity to create a council that reflects the priorities of Swindon residents, which involves you, listens to you and takes your views seriously. Not the current we know best or the disaster of the last Labour administration.

We proudly continue to support our green agenda protecting our villages and green spaces. Getting the basics right by tackling dog fouling, litter, fly-tipping and graffiti with a doubled enforcement force with the power of on-the-spot fines. Protecting our proud and symbolic heritage we will find a viable and sympathetic use for the Mechanics’ and the Locarno.

A transparent council is a necessity not a dream with devolved powers allowing neighbourhood plans to tackle HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) and putting residents first. Only the Lib Dems can make this a reality.

Jim Boyd, independent candidate for Chiseldon and Lawn

HAVING witnessed this administration and local Conservative councillors turn their backs on our community just because we exercised our democratic right to question their actions I decided to seek election to prevent this behaviour continuing elsewhere.

Having gone to them seeking help and answers I was told to go and find out on my own. So I did. And when I did I realised just how much they try to keep the public at arm’s length. When I attended council meetings I saw that many of our elected representatives put their party’s priorities before the needs of the people they were elected serve.

The Localism Act is there to empower our communities but it can only succeed in our town and our local communities when the self-serving ‘we know what is best for you’, ‘we can do what we like’ style of representation is swept away. It’s out of touch, out of date and does not deliver.

The all-out elections are a great opportunity to resuscitate democracy and redress this corrosive single-party dominance we see in certain wards. It’s time for change. Change for the better.