Regeneration at Union Square.

Way back in February 2005 the old Post Office building in Merton Street (which closed in October 2002) was demolished and the Adver hailed it as the start of regeneration in the town centre: HERE and believe it or not, the Police Station and bus garage hit the ground between January and April 2006, now over two and a half years ago.







Since then all we have seen is further demolition taking place, with Davis House being raised to the ground back in February.

No doubt we can look forward to the bus station, Carlton car park and the Health Centre going the same way in the not too distant future, as well. Unfortunately, anybody who may be hoping to see a vast array of new buildings quickly rising from the ashes on this site may be a little disappointed because if you read the New Swindon Company Chief Executive Peter James October update on his blog HERE you will see that he writes about Union Square as a:
very large scheme and will not be fully completed for at least 10 years as it will be built on a phased basis dependant on overall demand.

This regeneration lark certainly isn’t a quick operation is it!

Let’s hope when the new bricks are laid (or more likely concrete poured) it is of better quality/design and last far longer than the attempts to regenerate this area have been in the past. After all Davis House, the bus station and the car park, none of which were particularly inspiring in design, were only put up in the 1980’s and have not had a very long shelf life have they!

Wouldn’t it be nice if the now boarded up areas mentioned above were at least opened up and grassed over, albeit temporarily?
This is something a resident of Central Swindon posted some months back on the Talkswindon Forum to Councillor Phil Young whose responsibilities as a Cabinet Member include regeneration. Councillor Young said at the time it was something he was looking into, but it doesn’t seem to have moved on so far. HERE