SWINDON Council's Conservative leader Mike Bawden asked voters to allow two more years for the town to get back on its feet.

During the election campaign the Tories, like all the parties, made a number of promises and pledges. Today, we remind him what they were:

We will continue to fight for a better education funding settlement from central government. We will work to bring equal opportunities for all pupils in Swindon, no matter where they live.

We will be tough on developers to ensure that their build is sustainable and sympathetic to the surrounding environment.

We are working to tackle the growing problem of litter and graffiti.We have signed up to an ambitious recycling target, with a full recycling kerbside collection to around 8,000 homes.

We have set an ambitious target to achieve an Ofsted score of at least Grade 3 in 2004/05, up from Grade 7 in 2001.

Our top priority for 2004/05 is social services. We have a three-year recovery plan, charging the management team with achieving a one-star rating in 2004/05.

We are tackling the issue of improvements in the provision of elderly residential care Swindon by a substantial £1m upgrade to our care homes.

We want to get best value for taxpayers and cut wastage by up to 10 per cent by improving the way we spend money. We are tackling the unacceptable £750,000 annual overspend at the Steam museum, already seeing savings of £90,000, while developing new attractions at the museum to increase visitors.

If the Swindon university development does not go ahead, we will not support any development at Coate.

We are committed to Swindon's smaller libraries, and will not sacrifice that service.