The news that Swindon Town Centre’s economy is in serious peril, is alarming but not surprising. The Tory Council have failed to regenerate the Town Centre.  They have had 8 years in power in Swindon and yet our Town Centre is still scarred by wasteland, derelict buildings, and eyesores.
The Tory solution, a panic £500,000 subsidy for car parking, will not in my view solve the real problem with Swindon’s Town Centre.  This subsidy is instead an admittance of failure by the Tories.
It is an indictment on the Tories that the jewels in our crown, the Mechanics Institute and the Locarno, lay decaying and in threat of destruction.
Urgently we need to develop and deliver a clear and decisive plan for a Town Centre which is attractive for shopping, leisure and culture. Â I believe we need Town Centre which reflects the railway history of our town, which provides public open space so that people want to spend their time in our Town, which provides greater access and linkages two the Outlet Village and to Old Town; and which reflects a high architectural standard.
I worry that without a clear plan we will simply be replacing eyesores and White Elephants with more eyesores and White Elephants.
We have to make sure we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. We should learn from the successes of places like Bristol, Gloucester, Manchester and Birmingham, and proactively forge a coherent plan for our Town Centre.  We should consider an architectural competition to ensure that in the future Swindon is a name connected with great design rather than mediocre design.
Swindon needs to end the degeneration of our Town Centre which is the legacy of 8 years of Tory control; and achieve real, positive and long lasting regeneration of our Town Centre.
Cllr Mark Dempsey
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