Board Members

The Swindon Strategic Partnership was reformed during 2006 and is now called the Swindon Strategic Partnership Overview and Monitoring Group.  Current membership is as follows:

Group members:

Tom Charnock, Chair, Councillor, Town and Parish Councils,

Steve Henderson, Representative for Faith sector

Ruth Hursey Chair, Neighbourhood Renewal Task Group / Geographical Communities Representative

Paul Gregory Representative for Equalities groups

Colin Lovell Councillor, Swindon Borough Council Cabinet Member for Safer & Stronger Communities

Observers:

Stella Milsom, Government Office of the South West

James Griffin, Head of Policy, Swindon Borough Council

Steve Richards, Representative South West Regional Development Agency

To see the diagram on how the new group fits together with the LAA blocks and LAA Partnership Board please click here: SSP organisation diagram

For further information on the Swindon Strategic Partnership please contact a member of the LAA & Partnership Team (details can be found on the Contacts page).

For further information on the 4 LAA blocks and how you can feed into the blocks, please either contact a member of the Partnership team, log on to www.swindonlaa.org.uk website or press the LAA button on the Home page of this website.

Board Biogs

Tom Charnock

Tom was born in Merseyside and completed an Engineering Apprenticeship on leaving school.  He then worked in various industries including the motor, shipbuilding and toys.  Tom moved to Peterborough with the toy industry and came to Swindon in 1980 to start Bluebird Toys.  More recently Tom has been very involved with the Strategic Development of the town including a hotel for Honda and Keypoint.  Tom is Chair of Stanton Fitzwarren Parish Council, a member of Wiltshire Association of Local Councils (WALC), Trustee of Voluntary Action Swindon and Chair of Swindon Strategic Partnership Overview & Monitoring Group.

Ruth Hursey

Steve Henderson

Stephen is Chaplaincy Manager at The Great Western Hospital – Swindon and is currently serving as the Representative for Faith Communities on the Overview and Monitoring Group of the Swindon Strategic Partnership.

Prior to becoming a chaplain in 1998 he was a Baptist minister having held the office of Pastor in two congregations in Manchester and Newton Abbot in South Devon. He has always had a concern that the outworking of the religious life should result in seeing communities and the quality of life changed for the better. Stephen is passionately committed to seeing all interested parties in the life aspect of “Faith” networking and relating together in ways that will meet his concern.

Stephen is an enthusiastic supporter of the Strategic Partnership initiative and sees all the aspirations of the Swindon Community Strategy as affirming the highest hopes of the religious communities he is acquainted with. This present Strategic Partnership enterprise is he believes a real opportunity for local authority and Faith communities to collaborate for the highest good.

Stephen was born in Bristol in 1955 and enjoys travelling, his young, adult son and daughter and his wife Alison (last but not least!). He has lived in North Swindon since 1998 and also latterly enjoys the solitude of putting on an “Ipod” and downloading lots of good music and podcasts.

Paul Gregory

Paul was educated at Marlborough College, and Reading University.  Since 1996 he has been running his own Residential Lettings business in Swindon and prior to this was a Director of Hamptons International (a subsidiary of Bristol & West Building Society) based in Kensington, London.

He is currently chair of the LGBT Coalition (funded by SBC and set up to scrutinise and find solutions that guide SBC policy ) and as a consequence sit on SBC Equalities Advisory Forum.  He is also a Director of Pride Youth (A charity set up to provide a safe environment and counselling for vulnerable young gay and lesbian people 14yrs to 21yrs)

He also sits on the following Boards:

-Chair of Wiltshire Police Gay Policing Initiative

-Wiltshire Police Race Equality and Diversity Programme Board

-Wiltshire Criminal Justice Board and Wiltshire Police Authority’s Independent Advisory Group

-LA Governor of Churchfields Secondary School and a Community Governor of King William Street Primary School

-He is also a member of Queens Park Community Council

Cllr Colin Lovell

My hobbies and interests are Politics (obviously), current affairs, history, music, and walking in the country.

I have always been interested in politics since being a teenager. In those days inflation was rife and the value of our currency plummeted year by year.

However, in the mid eighties I went to live in the Far East for many years where I worked in the money markets. I was there for around 10 years (with a stint at university in London) and returned to Swindon in the mid nineties.

I became an activist in 1997 and that led, eventually, to being elected on to the SBC in 2004.

My ambition, along with my colleagues, is to make Swindon the best place in the country to live with good quality housing, top class schools and university and high calibre employment.

There are many aspects of this portfolio I really enjoy but what really appeals is working with the community and improving their lives, seeing how the Anti Social Behaviour team work, working with my cabinet colleagues and helping to deliver services to the residents of Swindon.