Councillors faced a barrage of questions about the future of Lydiard House and Park at a packed West Swindon Locality Meeting at the Link Centre Library on Monday evening. Cllr Tim Swinyard (Lydiard & Freshbrook) – ‘History loving, Swindon Town FC watching, Conservative Councillor’ (twitter profile) was in the hot seat. Starters comprised a lengthy debate about road surfacing projects, leaves and potential flooding issues, litter and recycling until we eventually arrived at the main course – the leasing out of Lydiard House and Park. There was no dessert! I still believe that the Council could have come up with some in-house initiatives before calling in independent property advisor Bilfinger GVA to do the job for them. Car parking charges is one obvious suggestion, but councillors seem loathe to grasp this particular nettle. My guess is that any new partner will bring this charge in straight away. Councillors admitted that the local authority is not very good ...