The Conservative Group will present its amendment at Thursday’s Full Council meeting at Euclid Street.
The proposals outline £5.955 million in savings and efficiencies. This would be offset by £743,000 in additional revenue spending and £1 million in capital investment, leaving a net saving of £5.212 million for 2026/27.
Among the suggested savings are the removal of vacant posts and a reduction in senior management layers. The group says the council should be capped at four tiers from frontline to chief executive, rather than seven layers it claims are planned.
Other measures include increasing commercial sponsorship, outsourcing property and architecture teams, ending the use of vegetable oil as vehicle fuel, reviewing parking charges between Old Town and the town centre, cutting civic electricity consumption by 23 percent and introducing a highways lane rental scheme.
Budget documents state there are currently 298.8 full time equivalent vacant roles, with a budgeted value of £14.9 million. Of these, 129.4 FTE posts are filled by locums, mainly in social work and waste services.
The Conservatives are proposing to remove 80 percent of vacant roles not covered by locums, which they say would deliver £5.2 million in savings. They say frontline services such as social work and waste collection would be protected.
Alongside the savings, the group has pledged investment in several areas across Swindon. Plans include refurbishing the Wyvern Theatre, building a new café at Coate Water subject to feasibility and launching a four year investment programme for country parks.
New play areas are proposed for Stanton Park and Moulden Hill. The amendment also includes a pilot scheme offering 30 minutes of free parking in the town centre and additional funding for country park rangers.
The Conservatives have also proposed creating a Swindon Enterprise Zone covering the town centre and railway corridor through to South Marston.
A further £475,000 would fund what the group describes as a Clean up Swindon or broken window campaign. This would focus on tackling fly tipping, removing litter, weeds and graffiti, increasing visible maintenance and working with parish councils to introduce a parish stewards scheme for small scale highways and environmental works.
Councillor Dale Heenan, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance, said:
“The Conservatives have identified where £5.2m can be cut from Council spending whilst protecting the services people care about like our roads and parks. Swindon Council spending has increased by 40% in 3 years, that’s £67 million. Can anyone honestly say they can see the benefit of the extra £67m? Well, it’s been spent, gone.
“We are only promising tangible, specific actions that we can be held accountable for… And still we can save £5m. This is a common sense pragmatic alternative budget that people can support no matter their political colour.”
He added that the proposals offer a “credible, serious alternative”.
Councillor Gary Sumner said:
“The financial mismanagement of the last three years means we can’t solve all the problems overnight. Under Labour, Swindon Council is spending tens of millions more money than it has income for.
“A £5m overspend has turned into £10m, and this year it’s doubled again to £22m. Only government support is avoiding Swindon going bankrupt.
“This budget by Cllr Dale Heenan and the Conservatives shows a different direction as a credible, serious alternative.”
The council’s draft budget for 2026/27 includes a proposed 4.99 percent rise in council tax.
Swindon Borough Council has been granted “in principle” Exceptional Financial Support of £22.3 million for 2026/27. Published documents state the authority faces a £50 million funding gap over the next three years.
An independent report by CIPFA, commissioned by the council, states that without approval from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to capitalise some running costs, the authority would be unable to meet its statutory duty to set a balanced budget for 2026/27.
The Conservative Group is urging councillors from all parties to back its amendment when it comes before Full Council this week.
WTF are you doing reporting imaginary numbers from the Conservatives when they’re not in power.
Why dont you report – that when Labour was last in charge of the council, Swindon was in the black – and now after DECADES of tory mismanagement we are a third of a billion in the red.
So again I was WTF are you doing, giving the tories headlines over something they have zero power to implement, zero responsibility for, and which they could have carried out themselves at any time of the last decade, while they actually were in Power.
What I remember when the Tories were in charge of the council, was that we had not one but two senior council executives – both being paid the highest wage of any council in the country.