APARTMENTS, houses and a convenience store are being lined up to replace the redundant energy centre used by Wakefield House, in Pipers Way.

The energy plant used by the leaseholders at Wakefield House is being relocated, freeing up the site for demolition and development.

Marlborough Park, the recently built housing development, stands opposite the proposed site, and residents there are being targeted as customers for any convenience store.

Under the plans, put together on behalf of Delta Properties by Swindon’s DPDS Consulting, 16 town houses and a four-storey building would be built.

A ground-floor supermarket and 18 two-bedroom apartments would make up the four-storey plot.

The applicants received pre-application advice from Swindon Borough Council officer Andy Brown, who said the general principle would be acceptable, providing it took influence from the surrounding development.

A culmination of sustainability issues, the age and state of the existing plant and strict requirements of Wakefield House’s leaseholders have accelerated the project. Historic plans for this development had included a doctor’s surgery on the first floor of the apartment block, which would have replaced Marlborough Road Surgery.

However, last February, when this application was prepared, that surgery closed and its patients were redistributed to surrounding surgeries, nullifying the need for a new practice.

The new plot would also provide 91 car parking spaces.

DPDS’s planning statement said: “The proposed development, situated well within Swindon’s defined urban area, is considered to represent a form of development which will mark a significant improvement over and above the existing energy centre.

“It will also be providing much needed housing, jobs and filling a deficiency within the local area for convenience food retail.

“The proposed mixed use building and proposed dwellings are of good contemporary design that reflect and compliment existing development to the north of the site and the character of the surrounding area as a whole. In terms of amenity, the removal of the energy centre not only improves the aesthetics of the local street scene, but it also removes a source of local noise, air pollution and contamination.’’

The application is open for public comments on Swindon Council’s planning portal via www.swindon.gov.uk, reference S/14/2137.