Are we finally on the road to recovery?

WHEN I left Swindon, one mischievous councillor asked me to make sure I left on the light so that all those to follow could see the way out.

Although he had always been something of a comedian (aren't all politicians?) there was nevertheless a serious comment bedded in the banter.

Swindon Council, hungover from an excess of disasters, was loitering legless but without intent at the Last Chance Crossroad, blinded by the glaring headlines of its own incompetence.

Unfortunately, though hardly surprising in view of the council's continuous denial that it needed treatment for a self-mutilation disorder, all signposts pointed to dead ends, whichever way it turned. And blundering straight ahead was an even more dire option, leading to the cliff-edge and the abyss, courtesy of the law of political gravity.

The fact that the council chose to stagger onwards regardless, over the edge, resulting in public humiliation as it was branded worthless for its education provision, lamentable for delivery of Social Services and overall one of the poorest performers in the whole of the UK, is cheerless, yet irrefutable, history.

To make a party political point out of this road-to-hell scenario would not be constructive and might serve only to polarise opinion. Inescapable, however, is the fact that the Labour group presided over a nosedive that could well have come straight from the training manual for Japanese kamikaze pilots.

Equally undeniable is the fact that previous Old Labour administrations had given Swindon the kiss of life, raising the town from the grave after the demise of the railway industry, which had been the heart and lungs of the community and economy. With a killer instinct, the council went worldwide to woo new industries to Swindon and was successful in a way that would have cheered any champion of ruthless free enterprise.

The migration of companies to Swindon, particularly in the New Age market, was nothing short of yet another industrial revolution, a miracle of "arise and walk" proportions and the corpse did just that!

Re-birth had been inspired and engineered by old-styled civic hacks turned as if by political alchemy into sorceress seers. Can it be done again?

Well, as with any addiction, there can be no recovery without the patient first accepting the condition. And there is no doubt that Swindon Council became unhealthily addicted to crisis management.

The first step back to good health a recognition of the diagnosis has been taken. The symptoms of delusion have been treated. Thirty months ago, as the Swindon's municipal Titanic went down, the band played on to the tunes of glory city status was being applied for and certain captains of the sinking ship were preparing to enter top staff for the national excellence awards in Local Government. Were they blind or barmy? We shall never know and can only guess.

But you didn't need to be Einstein to calculate that Swindon, at that time, was unlikely to qualify even for rusty parish pump branding, let alone city ranking, and the most the council's senior management team could have realistically expected to win was a dunce's cap.

Times have changed. A new crew is on board. Fresh faces include chief executive Simon Birch and directors Cliff Garland (policy and performance), Gavin Jones (cultural change), Paul Blacker (finance), Bernie Brannan (housing), Hilary Pitts (education), Keith Skerman (social services) and Graeme Bell (acting head of environmental services).

Politically, the Conservatives now have the stage, with Mike Bawden orchestrating the show, anxious for a fast rhythm in the hope he will never have to face the music. "The Government has said we're poor and I agree with them," says Bawden impishly, delighting in the irony of a Labour Government being so critical of its own at local level. The damning indictment from Whitehall relates to the previous Swindon administration.

Luxuriating in smugness is high-risk strategy, however, which Bawden acknowledges when he says: "We're no longer in denial. This has to be the year of delivery. I shall be judged on results, not promises. So, too, the chief executive." At this point, Birch blanches.

If the point is not already crystal clear, Bawden gives it guillotine sharpness when he adds with vinegary clarity: "I fail, I go. If Simon fails, he " The meaning is menacing. But all carrots in the real business world have a big stick as an underpinning root.

Bawden is assiduously applying the rules of hard-headed business that there is more to accountability than mere transparency in government. Everything has to be paid for, especially failure. Government in the shadows of the gallows emphasises without subtlety that no one's neck is safe.

Although education results are still below the national average, examination performances are inching upwards, as illustrated by last week's GCSE grades.

Bath University has identified Swindon as its location of choice for a new campus, offering a quality of higher education for local students that, if realised, will fulfil a dream that has been passed down, like a treasured heirloom, through generations of Wiltshire academics and politicians.

The Chinese government is buying the Renault building site in west Swindon to develop as a European trading post for hundreds of Beijing companies. The mandarins are confidently predicting a spin-off of "thousands" of jobs for Swindonians.

The embryo town centre regeneration 'baby' is poised for birth into a breathtaking renaissance, giving back the town its heart and maybe even its soul.

Social Services remains the rogue element of the equation a monster with an insatiable appetite, never satiated no matter how many millions of pounds are fed into its complicated anatomy.

Nevertheless, there is a robust air of optimism circulating through Swindon's corridors of power.

With just a few reservations, I share that faith, but it is going to be a long climb, with countless chances for a fall.

For Swindon's sake, let us hope our civic legislators do not lose their grip again in every sense.