One of the town's finest hotels has officially reopened after a major £2.6 million refurbishment.

Guests were invited to a reception at Lydiard Park Hotel and Conference Centre to mark the opening, and were shown round the newly done-up rooms and common areas.

They were even able to try out a buffet of dishes created by the new executive chef at the hotel, Marcus Vevey.

The newly-installed leader of Swindon Borough Council, Councillor Jim Robbins gave a short speech welcoming the guests.

He said: “I became the leader of the council on Friday.

“The team have done an absolutely brilliant job on this place. They’ve delivered on time and on budget and clearly, I’m claiming that as the first Labour victory since we’ve been in power.

“I really hope this is a venue that you can all use, we can get people coming in and enjoying the beautiful park we’ve got here, and we can get people in and they can see what we can do here in Swindon.

“See what a brilliant place this is, and hopefully we can use it as a springboard to get more investment into Swindon, get things going and make Swindon the place we want it to be.”

In fact, despite Coun Robbins' somewhat cheeky joke, the entire project was undertaken under the previous Conservative administration, particularly the leadership of cabinet members Keith Williams and Matty Courtliff.

The council’s director of operations Brian Pinchbeck led tours of the newly done up spaces, explaining what had been changed.

He said: “There used to be 1970s décor and this function space was on three le4vels, and not very accessible. On the other side of the bar was the swimming pool, which was leaking. That’s been made into the Palm bar now.”

The 32 rooms have been given an upgrade, with new décor and fixtures and fittings, with one fully wheelchair accessible and others made into family rooms, with a double room and two single beds in the next room now accessed through an arch.

And in the beautifully fitted-out bathrooms, there’s a very intriguing feature. Mr Pinchbeck said: “It’s even got a Bluetooth mirror. So, if you’ve got music on your phone, you can hook it up to the mirror and have music in the shower.”

As well as the new executive chef Alex Roupelis has been recruited by the council as the manager of the hotel and conference centre, and it is fully open now.

Details of availabilities and bookings are at https://www.lydiardpark.org.uk/hotel/