COUNCIL leader Mike Bawden says his plan to co-ordinate council spending on everything from vehicles to envelopes is nothing less than a bid to save a sinking ship.

He will find little dissent among the taxpayers from whose pockets the annual £100m equipment bill is taken.

The fact that, in spite of the huge sum involved, the council has no central purchasing department, is a disgrace.

Sadly, it will be greeted with weary resignation by Swindonians, who have watched the authority lurch shambolically from one crisis to another in recent years.

If previous cases are anything to go by, it is too much to hope that anybody will actually be held responsible for the current problem.

In any case, like last year's infamous case of the missing millions found in a forgotten council account, the identities of those to blame are probably lost in the mists of time.

Councillor Bawden is to be commended for telling the people of the borough that he has discovered such a serious problem, and for pledging to do something about it.

We wish him luck; we fear he will need it.