Backwards, to go Forward, Swindon

The long slow death of Forward Swindon has finally been confirmed.

No-one was surprised. But who has most to gain from it?

The optimist would say, the people of Swindon. The pessimist would say the new Cabinet member responsible for Town Centre regeneration.

There does seem to be a dividing line between the eras of the former Cabinet member, Councillor Perkins and Councillor Heenan.

The Perkins era was known for it's constant stream of optimistic words, staggeringly-slow physical on-the-ground change and constant questions about accountability.

The Heenan era will no doubt see a continuation of these to greater and lesser extents, depending on whether developers, specifically in the town centre, bring the private money that is constantly talked about, but seldom seen.

The end for Forward Swindon seems to have been marked by the tearing-up of the development agreement on Kimmerfields by the council. Plus the subtle changes on the FS website's Kimmerfields page that a development plan would be this autumn, has now become a 'movement strategy' to be 'developed in late 2018' and a plan for the new bus station to be 'finalised in early 2019'.

Reading between the lines, it's easy to see that the Kimmerfields (originally called Union Square) plan will be much different to what was originally proposed. 600,000 square feet of office space was the original plan, made up of half a dozen plots, most of them two or three buildings grouped around central courtyards. These would have had retail space on the ground floors and office space on the upper floors. Some upper floors would have been flats, plus a hotel and multi-storey carpark (maybe without crumbling terracota).

With Councillor Perkins comment that a business wants 100,000 square feet of office at Kimmerfields, that means the site would include fewer, but bigger buildings, that throws off entirely the original plan. 

If the traffic plan needs revising, then maybe Councillor Perkins admission that the new bus station would have no more bays than there currently is on Fleming Way and at the current bus station, will also be revised? He also admitted that there would be no room for additional bays for future bus growth, and that the bus companies would not agree to the plan if it didn't work. In that case, Thamesdown and Stagecoach should set their handbrakes and demand extra space, they may not get another chance to say so.

The business after the 100,000 square feet, is it a new business? A current one that's already in the town and who simply wants newer more up to date office space? Swindon Centric will not reveal!

What the new economic development team in SBC needs to be careful of is what happened to The Parade development, where the headlines were all about the new shiny BHS store to replace the old. Less was said about the new BHS store reducing their floorspace compared to the old store. In a sense a consolidation of investment, rather than an increase in it.

Replacing old buildings for new ones of similar size and use, is simply allowing the town centre to tread water. The replacing of the Wyvern Theatre carpark with the Whalebridge carpark is another expensive example of what essentially is maintenance of current facilities, not an investment to giving the town greater things.

For Kimmerfields to work, the SBC team need to persuade other businesses in on the back of the 100,000 square feet business.

Councillor Heenan being busy with his Sim City in east Swindon could work to the SBC team's advantage. They might be able to get to work on Kimmerfields without someone getting the crayons out and drawing all over the white hoardings.