The Labour Party has increased its majority and retained control of Swindon Borough Council following yesterday’s (2 May) Borough-wide election.

Of the 20 seats up for election this year, nine seats changed hands from the Conservatives to Labour.

Labour took seats in Central (Domingos Seby Dias); Liden, Eldene & Park South (Marianne Le Coyte-Grinney); Shaw (Rose Llewellyn); Rodbourne Cheney (Ana Rosada Fernandes); Priory Vale (Ian Edwards); St Margaret and South Marston (Simon Shelley); Lydiard and Freshbrook (Leon Grother). Haydon Wick (Ray Ballman) and Penhill & Upper Stratton (Thomas Smith).

Following the election, Labour has a 25-seat majority with 41 seats overall. The Conservatives have 15 seats with the Liberal Democrats having one.

Turnout for the election was 31 per cent overall. The full election results following today’s count at the Council-owned STEAM Museum are available on the Council’s website.

Charlie Austin (left) & Frazer Blake-Tracey (right)

Swindon Town players teamed up with our fostering team to back our appeal for more foster carers to come forward and provide a loving home for children who have no-one to care for them.

The football stars wore special t-shirts during the warm-up before last Saturday’s (27 April) final match of the season at home to Morecambe to raise awareness of fostering.

Eleven foster carers and 10 foster children also attended the match after the club provided them with free tickets.Find out more about fostering in Swindon.

Why not volunteer with the Forget Me Not Bakers and create a showstopper for some of Swindon’s loneliest or isolated residents.

Please email the team, to find out more about this project and become one of our star bakers! Pictured are some of the cakes our volunteers baked recently.

The Government is making it easier for residents to check for and fill in any gaps in their National Insurance (NI) record to help increase their State Pension by launching a new online service.

The service will show residents how much their State Pension could increase by and provide details of the voluntary NI contributions they would need to pay in to achieve this. It allows most people under State Pension age to view gaps in their NI record and pay voluntary contributions to fill those gaps, if it will benefit them.
Customers can access the Check your State Pension forecast via GOV.UK or via the HMRC app.

Is your child struggling with their maths homework? Are you finding it difficult to help?

The Multiply programme offers adults free courses that focus on practical maths skills, having fun with numbers and building confidence with maths so that you can help your child to learn.

Find out if you are eligible: call or text 07989 717800 or email multiply@swindon.gov.uk.

Make sure you don’t run out of your prescription medication this bank holiday.

A list of all pharmacies open this bank holiday Monday (6 May) is available online.

See if your local pharmacy is open on this interactive map.

Whooping cough (Pertussis) is a bacterial infection of the lungs and breathing tubes. It spreads very easily and can sometimes cause serious problems, including pneumonia, permanent brain damage and sometimes death.

It's important for babies and children to get vaccinated against it. We're reminding mums-to-be to get protected against whooping cough - ideally between 16 and 32 weeks - so that their young baby has protection from birth against this serious disease and to ask their midwife if they’re unsure about receiving the vaccination.

The whooping cough vaccine has been used safely with pregnant women and their babies in the UK for over 10 years. Getting the vaccine reduces your baby’s risk by over 90 per cent. The immunity your newborn baby gets from your vaccination will give protection through the very early weeks of life until the baby can have a first routine vaccination at two months of age.

We’re also urging parents to check that their children are vaccinated against whooping cough, which is offered to all infants at eight, 12 and 16 weeks of age (as part of the six-in-one combination vaccine) with an additional dose included in the pre-school booster vaccine.

If you’re pregnant and have not been vaccinated yet, or your child is not up to date with whooping cough or other routine vaccinations, please contact your GP as soon as possible. If you or your child have symptoms ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111.

All the items pictured above are packaged in plastic films that cannot be recycled by our waste team. They need to be placed in your general waste bin, rather than your weighted blue bag, or taken to your local supermarket if they recycle this type of plastic.

Further examples include:

• Single-use plastic bags
• Film lids from yogurt pots or fruit punnets
• Delivery bags
• Multi-pack wrapping
• Salad, pasta, and rice bags
• Cheese, fish and meat wrapping
• Crisps, sweet bags, biscuit and chocolate wrapping
• Baby, pet food pouches

Some plastic packaging may say on it if you can take it to a supermarket for recycling.

Check Recycle Now’s ‘Recycling Locator’ to see which supermarkets collect these plastics near you.