Swindon (borough)

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Borough of Swindon


Geography
Status:	Unitary, Borough
Region:	South West England
Ceremonial County:	Wiltshire
Area: - Total	Ranked 177th 230.10 km²
Admin. HQ:	Swindon
ONS code:	00HX
Demographics
Population: - Total (2005 est.) - Density	Ranked 80th 184,000 800 / km²
Ethnicity:	95.2% White 2.1% S.Asian
Politics
Swindon Borough Council http://www.swindon.gov.uk/
Leadership:	Leader & Cabinet
Executive:	Conservative
MPs:	Anne Snelgrove, Michael Wills

The Borough of Swindon is a local government district in South West England. It is centred on the town of Swindon and forms part of the ceremonial county of Wiltshire. It was formed in 1974 as the Thamesdown district of Wiltshire, from former area of the municipal borough of Swindon and Highworth Rural District.

On April 1, 1997 it was made administratively independent of Wiltshire, with its council becoming a unitary authority. ^[1] It adopted the name Swindon on April 24, 1997. The former Thamesdown name and logo is still used by the main local bus company of Swindon, called Thamesdown Transport Limited ^[2]

Around 2002, Swindon Borough Council was rated as a failing Council - this ultimately lead to a change in political administration, which up until that point had been Labour for some 20 years (excluding a six month period when the Conservative administration where in control). Since then the Council has been working to improve services and manage it's budgets better. To help achieve this, the Council in 2005 announced the Swindon 2010 50 Promises. These are 50 high level goals that it plans to do by the year 2010. These stretching goals were publicly announced and updates are regularly featured in the Swindon Advertiser newspaper.

Swindon Borough Council is now a 2 star Council according to the Audit Commission ^[3]

1 Economy
2 Area covered
3 Wards
4 References

[edit] Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Swindon at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added^[1]	Agriculture^[2]	Industry^[3]	Services^[4]
1995	2,654	13	1,023	1,618
2000	4,085	9	1,368	2,708
2003	4,259	8	1,185	3,067

^ includes hunting and forestry

^ includes energy and construction

^ includes Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured

^ Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

[edit] Area covered

Map of the Borough of Swindon and major settlements

The Borough covers not just the town of Swindon, but surrounding countryside and the town of Highworth and villages including

[edit] Wards

The following are the Electoral Wards within the Borough.

Moredon
St Margaret
Freshbrook and Grange Park
Parks
Highworth
Covingham and Nythe
Blunsdon
Walcot
Central
Dorcan
Haydon Wick
Eastcott
St Philips
Shaw and Nine Elms
Ridgeway
Old Town and Lawn
Toothill and Westlea
Gorse Hill and Pinehurst
Western
Wroughton and Chiseldon
Abbey Meads
Penhill

[edit] References

Districts of South West England
Bath and North East Somerset \| Bournemouth \| Bristol \| Caradon \| Carrick \| Cheltenham \| Christchurch \| Cotswold \| East Devon \| East Dorset \| Exeter \| Forest of Dean \| Gloucester \| Isles of Scilly \| Kennet \| Kerrier \| Mendip \| Mid Devon \| North Cornwall \| North Devon \| North Dorset \| North Somerset \| North Wiltshire \| Penwith \| Plymouth \| Poole \| Purbeck \| Restormel \| Salisbury \| Sedgemoor \| South Gloucestershire \| South Hams \| South Somerset \| Stroud \| Swindon \| Taunton Deane \| Teignbridge \| Tewkesbury \| Torbay \| Torridge \| West Devon \| West Dorset \| West Somerset \| West Wiltshire \| Weymouth and Portland
Counties with multiple districts: Cornwall - Devon - Dorset - Gloucestershire - Somerset - Wiltshire