Partners get behind new vision to reinvent Swindon town centre
A draft set of plans to spearhead the reinvention of Swindon town centre are being tabled at the council’s cabinet meeting this week.
The eight ambitions, set out in a draft document called ‘Heart of Swindon’, are the result of a council-coordinated effort to seek the expertise and input of partners including key landowners, developers, educational institutions, government agencies and businesses.
The ‘Heart of Swindon’ document says: “Investment in the town’s facilities and infrastructure will aid and support Swindon’s growth in the coming decades, providing a better and more useful town centre for those who live, work and visit the town. Delivery of new homes, including affordable homes and improvements of facilities, services and leisure opportunities in the town centre will support growing communities and create a fantastic place to call home.”
The eight draft ambitions are:
A Centre for Living: Creating new, mixed-use neighbourhoods in the heart of the town.
A Creative Centre: Supporting Swindon’s growing creative community and delivering a new entertainment venue.
A Centre for Learning: Giving Swindon’s higher education institutions a place in the centre and creating a hub for students.
A Knowledge Centre: Bringing Swindon’s leading enterprises into the heart of town and providing spaces to support small businesses.
A Green & Healthy Centre: Investing in and connecting our central parks, along with extensive greening of the centre through tree planting and creation of new pocket parks.
A Vibrant Centre: Providing a broad mix of shops, places to eat and drink, and community spaces that bring vibrancy throughout the day and into the evening.
A Connected Centre: Creating stronger connections into the heart of Swindon and between its districts, including across the rail line.
A Proud Swindon: Committing to creatively re-using Swindon’s historic buildings and to ensure that development responds to the town’s rich history of innovation.
Each ambition is accompanied by a set of propositions that indicate how the ambitions could be realised in practice. Among the total of 53 propositions is one that envisages providing up to 5,000 new homes in the town centre, many of which would be affordable.
Another involves exploring the redevelopment of the Brunel Centre, which could include shops, community space, workspaces, homes and public space providing apartment living for students, young people and those downsizing.
The draft vision document also includes a proposition to develop a new space for Wilkes Academy to bring it into the town centre. This could see Wilkes utilising the Wyvern Theatre to create a rejuvenated and professional performance space to rehearse and showcase students’ work.
Other plans include bringing forward residential-led development at Kimmerfields and creating a regional scale entertainment venue, able to cater for a wide range of events including large West End touring shows, music concerts and other big events. The Council’s Cabinet will be asked this month to decide on the location of the new entertainment venue and approve further work to develop a detailed business case.
Organisations including FI Real Estate Management (owners of the Brunel Centre), GCL (representing The Parade), William Arthur Property (owner of commercial property in the town centre), Network Rail, the University of Bath and Business West attended a number of workshops to help shape the ambitions. These were also attended by Councillor Gary Sumner, the Borough Council’s Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Cabinet Member for Planning and Regeneration, in the spirit of fostering cross-party support for the ambitions.
Pending a green light at the cabinet meeting on the draft vision, the council will invite views from residents and all interested parties to help inform a final version.
