Swindon's Regeneration : The Plan We've Been Waiting For

At it's core, regeneration is one person building something new out of nothing. A lone contractor at Swindon's Union Square.

One of the criticisms of Swindon's development has been it's lack of joined-up-thinking, this applies very much to our town centre. With the publication of the Swindon Masterplan Draft, a document is finally worthy of consideration for fixing that problem.

At 203 pages, it covers a vast number of areas, with detailed plans for each.

On first glance, it seems to do two things of immense importance that have historically been seen as only repelling each other. It recognises the historic details of areas (continuing streets on that have previously been obliterated) and how best buildings can be located or adapted for future focus and relevance (the recladding of the Signal Point building is a realistic prospect, unless money becomes forthcoming to replace one landmark with another that's of greater aesthetic value).

I'll look at the masterplan in greater detail soon. But the public exhibitions for the consultation on it (everyone's feedback will shape how the finalised masterplan turns out) start on Tuesday at the Central Library, details here.