Same again, please?

The plan to demolish the Tented Market and replace it with a development of restaurant units and cafes is nothing new, a similar plan was mooted in 2007 and rejected in 2008 and it appears history is repeating itself, almost to the letter.

The 2007 plan was to demolish the Tented Market and replace it with a building housing 4 restaurants or cafes and one coffee shop. The proposal was recommended for approval by the council officers for planning but this was ignored and the proposal was rejected by the councillors on the Planning Committee. The main reason for the rejection then was the objections raised by the developers for Regent Circus and for Granville Street (the Granville Street development plan subsequently collapsed and work at Regent Circus did not start for a further four years) that the area would be saturated with food and drink businesses (just like the objections lodged by the traders at the Tented Market today). A smaller reason for objection was that the design was not 'landmark enough' as a replacement for the Tented Market building.

Skip forward to 2016 and it seems nothing has changed, at all.

Objections have been raised by the traders for the town centre being saturated by food and drink businesses, both at Regent Circus and soon at the Brunel Centre. It seems our appetite for a bite to eat is never-ending, with all cafes and restaurants in town appearing to stick around for a lot longer than the shops. 

The last version of the 2007 plan (there were a few), that was presented to SBC and rejected was called a 'pavilion' of 4 restaurants and one shop unit. 

The current plan is for 5 restaurant units in a building that is on the identical footprint of the 2007 proposed 'pavilion' and the elevations look very similar, with a little more glass and not as boxy a roof.

In short, Swindon has been presented in 2016 with a plan for a building almost identical in appearance to one it rejected allowing to be built in 2008.

8 years later, will SBC follow their own precedent and reject the proposal a second time? 

Unambition Unworthy of Brunel

The objections by the owners of the Brunel Centre to the Oasis redevelopment plan (and also the plans for Cribs Causeway) smack of someone in a boat that's slowly sinking blaming everyone round them for the seaworthiness of the craft they're bobbing about in.

The Brunel don't like the Oasis plan because it will include retail space which they feel will unfairly compete with the Brunel. The Oasis plan says that retail would be related to the sports activities, so you can bet one of them, at least, will be a shop selling snowboards. Not exactly something the Brunel has cornered the market in, or ever will or would want to.

It also complains about the empty units in the town centre and the lack of demand for them. It claims this would be made worse by the Oasis plan, yet the Brunel has figured out how to deal with it's long-term empty units as it's about to turn a large number into a food court, which it seems confident of letting. Also getting in on the leisure game, the Brunel has applied to turn units that have never been let since the Brunel Arcade was refurbished in the 1990s, into a gym.

The Brunel deserve strong praise for the number of events and higher-profile branding they've committed to in the last few years, this has brought more people in and shows that when an organisations spends the time and money, they can get things right.

So why whinge and moan about the Oasis and Cribs Causeway? Take a bit of spirit from the statue you're about to turn around of the engineer and make yourself the destination. Complaining about other developments makes it seem like you've left your ambition in an empty shop unit.

Give us a Brunel that can compete and see the crowds flock in*

*That goes for you too Forward Swindon. Raise your game, and while you're at it, your website doesn't seem to have been updated since June, hardly a vibrant shop window for a vibrant town is it?

Brunel Has The Builders In, Eventually

Repairs to the splaying concrete on the exit delivery ramp appears to be complete, with painting part-way through.

Regular readers will recall the story from last year about the dodgy-looking state of the delivery ramps of Swindon's Brunel Centre, it's nearly taken a year, but it would appear that Brunel Centre owners CIT Group (a private equity company) have invested in repairs.

Swindon Centric Says ; Let's hope the excellent standard of upkeep within the Brunel Centre now becomes the norm outside as well (plus the painting of the grey concrete in white is a simple but very effective smartening-up move).

Keep Your Ear To The Wall

After a delay, today saw the green walls in Canal Walk revealed. The larger one on the pedestrian bridge is radically different to what's gone before. The other green wall is smaller, and higher up, on the thin edge of the eastern side of the girder bridge.

Despite the heated discussion about the water feature and the town centre redevelopment, the green wall has got off (relatively) lightly. It'll be interesting to see how it goes, what it looks like in brighter conditions and what flowers/matures on it.

Swindon Centric Says : The green wall is certainly a grower, not too sure about the Mickey Mouse ears being put on the wall of the Brunel carpark at the same time. A moment after this picture was taken, Swindon Centric saw one side of the ears become terribly lopsided, appeared a worker had let go, oops!

Tune in tomorrow to see if the ears are where they should be, unlike Swindon Centric's which are always deliberately kept to the ground.

The Living Wall : Autumn Planting

Whatever administration and red tape would appear now to be over and it's full steam ahead for the Living Wall on the bridges above Canal Walk.

Swindon Centric Says ; We've got some spare crocus bulbs, any help?

P.S. - It's a shame that this seems to have been 'announced' by the council, rather than Forward Swindon, there's nothing on their main site, or recently reinvigorated twitter page about it. Maybe the council wanted to get this out to be seen to be doing something on town centre improvements after Karen Walker's resignation.

But why not get Forward Swindon to announce this? Otherwise, what's the point of the company?

The Living Wall : Soon To Germinate?

Swindon Centric has an update on the Living Wall (posted about back in May) that was planned as part of the Canal Walk redevelopment.

After a tip-off, administration behind the scenes is currently being concluded and then work can start.

Swindon Centric Says ; Thank you G for the tip-off on this growing story. Groan.... apologies... puns like that should be buried... and sorry again.

Is the Living Wall Dead On Arrival?

A big and flashy part of the Canal Walk redevelopment was the Living Wall on the bridge between the Brunel Centre and Brunel Arcade.

So where is it?

The Canal Walk project has been touted as finished and work has now moved on to Regent Street. So what happened to the wall?

Swindon Centric Says : Considering that root and branch reform of the New Swindon Company/Forward Swindon has been a rolling wish by many for a while, it's not surprising that a part of the 'vibrant' vision has been lost in the long grass.

A Political Fountain - Dripping in the Wrong Direction

Like Komadori, Swindon Centric is impressed by the new look of Canal Walk. The paving has mostly solved the uneven levels of the street and the feeling of a wider space has been achieved.

The fountain has become a talking point and yesterday's visit certainly showed children were drawn to it and people were stopping to look and comment. It does seem to dribble more than rush and even the dribble is creating a permanent damp patch over the new paving as the water falls outside the range of the drainage grills and flows down towards Bridge Street and the BHS site.

I was expecting the water to follow the contour of the design and neatly down into the drains, perhaps a change in flow speed and direction could be made. Or, increase the horizontal ground space of the grills, replacing some of the paving.

Swindon Centric Says ; With a report that the council leader would prefer the town centre to be about leisure rather than retail, what does he plan to turn all the empty shop units in the Brunel Centre and empty swathes of land into?

Brunel Tries To Hold Back The Tide

This was the scene this morning at ten o'clock at the Havelock Street entrance to the Brunel Centre. Just before the picture was taken, three or four white-shirted managers surveyed the work with brooms, before vanishing, no doubt for a cup of tea.

Swindon Centric Says ; It's unconfirmed at this hour whether the barricade was an effort to stem the flow of water after the previous half-hour's downpour, or to keep back the tide of low quality shopping in Havelock Square. It's also uncertain if either effort was successful.