Swindon council leader in Twitter spat over water companies tweet

A Twitter spat has emerged between the leader of Swindon council and his opposition’s deputy leader after he tweeted a story calling private water companies corrupt. Labour’s leader of Swindon Borough Council, Jim Robbins, clashed with the deputy leader of the Conservative group, Dale Heenan. Coun Robbins tweeted an article and petition direct from a post on the Surfers Against Sewage website, with a few words from the article automatically fed into Coun Robbins’ tweet. Those words were: “Corrupt water companies have been repeatedly dumping raw sewage into our waterways – we must act urgently before our rivers and seas are ruined forever. Sign now.” Coun Heenan responded saying this was no way for a council leader to talk about a company the council had significant dealings with: “Imagine a councillor being invited to meet Thames Water but fails to turn up and instead while it’s being held, tweets calling water company corrupt. “Well, Swindon can top that today. The new Swindon Council leader proudly did it. Juvenile grandstanding instead of effort to get change.” Coun Robbins responded saying he had been at other meetings as part of his duties and added: “I’ve been in touch with Thames Water and will happily
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