All Quiet on the Forward Swindon Front

The rebranding of the New Swindon Company into Forward Swindon has also seen other changes with a new chief executive, who seems a tad shy of local media (well, the Swindon Advertiser, who seems sore that she didn't return their phone calls), but some interesting information can be gleaned from her coverage in the Financial Times.

The FT article and that of the Swindon Advertiser mainly just talks about the tax break and marketing opportunities that Forward Swindon plan to make of Swindon. Not much talk about bricks and mortar rebuilding work.

Swindon Centric Says ; As Komadori has pointed out, the effectiveness of this new appointment is questionable, given previous experience. Then again, quangos are pretty unanswerable to anyone, but surely the best hope for an organisation charged with helping to rebuild the town centre is to staff it with architects, town planners and local stakeholders who actually have local knowledge, use the town centre and know what's needed to make it functional, relevant and attractive.

If this piece of news (specifically the comment under the story) is to be believed, everyone's favourite wi-fi businessman may soon have a hand in the town centre regeneration. Then again, since the loan to Digital City started to roll after being signed off on a note earmarking the money for small business/town centre regeneration , thank god for the small mercy that the town centre is due to be the second place to get the wi-fi. After Highworth, which still isn't finished...