Leader’s blog

A conversation about Swindon, the Thames Valley and why it matters.

I live in the Western Vale. Faringdon is just a stone’s throw from Swindon, and I go there a lot, to meet friends, get my son to various activities, or even to catch a band and have a great night out in Old Town. In short, I am very fond of my closest big town, and while I might get a few raised eyebrows from Oxford United supporters in the Vale, I loved my first Swindon Town game at the County Ground – “Go the Reds!”

Many people might see Swindon in a different light, but I want to be absolutely clear that I see Swindon as a place with a strong identity, a proud history, and real ambition for its future. I know many people who live there, work there, and care deeply about how it thrives.

I’ve spoken a lot in the past year on my concerns about Swindon being included in a new Thames Valley strategic authority – but I really want people to know this is not about disliking Swindon, looking down on it, or questioning its importance. Quite the opposite. It’s about making sure we get devolution right for everyone.

For some time, councils across Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire have worked closely together. This collaboration hasn’t happened by accident. It reflects long‑standing economic links, shared public services, and established partnerships that already shape how people live, work and travel across this area. That is why we have consistently supported the idea of a strategic authority aligned with the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire area – often referred to as BOB.

This geography aligns closely with existing structures that people rarely see but rely on every day: our Integrated Care Board, our police force area, and other public sector organisations that already think and plan on a BOB footprint. Building a strategic authority around those real, working relationships gives us the best chance of strong, joined‑up decision‑making and delivery.

It is also a geography that contains some nationally significant assets. From Science Vale to the Harwell Campus, and the wider Oxford–Cambridge knowledge corridor, this area concentrates world‑class research, innovation and economic potential. Bringing these strengths together under coherent governance isn’t about prestige – it’s about making sure investment, skills, housing and infrastructure decisions genuinely reinforce one another.

Swindon, however, sits differently. It has a distinct local identity and, in practical and administrative terms, its strongest ties are with Wiltshire. It lies outside the Thames Valley Police area and the Thames Valley Integrated Care Board, and there has been no historic pattern of joint working between Swindon Borough Council and Berkshire or Oxfordshire authorities in the way there has been across the BOB area.

There is another concern that matters deeply to me as a leader of a council with large rural communities. A strategic authority that includes several major towns and cities – Swindon alongside places like Reading, Slough and Oxford – would face intense and competing demands for infrastructure and investment. Without extreme care, that risks marginalising rural areas, where deprivation can be less visible but no less real, and where transport links, schools and community services already struggle for attention and funding.

For me, these are the reasons this stance has been taken. They are about governance, geography and fairness – not about affections or attitudes.

That said, devolution ultimately rests with government. If ministers decide that Swindon should be included within a future Thames Valley arrangement, I would absolutely commit to working positively with Swindon’s leadership to make that structure work. Collaboration and good faith will always matter more than lines on a map.

I would, however, strongly urge that any such model avoids making Swindon the singular focus of investment and growth in the western part of the area. That investment is vital to making a strategic authority work, and it simply has to be in place to lift all its communities – rural and urban, large and small – rather than concentrating opportunity in just one place

These conversations are not easy, and they shouldn’t be reduced to headlines or assumptions about motivation. My hope is that, whatever the final decision, it is made with a clear understanding of existing relationships, real-world governance, and the need to serve all our residents well.

That, above all else, is what this is about.

Cllr Bethia Thomas, Leader of White Horse District Council