12:30pm Tuesday 9th March 2010
By Scott McPherson
A NEW ‘arms length’ company charged with Swindon’s regeneration is set to be established tomorrow to replace the New Swindon Company.
The new company, to be called Forward Swindon Limited (FSL), will supersede TNSC and take control of regenerating the town, but with the crucial difference that it will be wholly owned by Swindon Borough Council.
Previously, TNSC was part-owned by the Homes and Communities Agency, the South West Regional Development Agency and Swindon council, but the new FSL will have the council as its sole shareholder.
Coun Phil young, cabinet member for culture, regeneration and economic development, said the new company will be able to drive the town’s regeneration forward but also admitted that TNSC was only partly successful.
He said: “The new company will look at regeneration for the entire borough and not just the town centre.
“It will also involve the economic development function which had previously been separate from the New Swindon Company.
“The main issue with the NSC was accountability – there were three owners and it was difficult to action things without reaching an agreement between everyone.
“The brilliant thing about FSL is that it will be completely owned and run by the council so we can get things done quicker and we are solely accountable, thus avoiding duplication.
“TNSC was partly a success in that it did bring forward a master plan for the town, but I think everyone would agree that we would have wanted to be further along the regeneration line now.”
If the decision to axe TNSC and create FSL is taken at the cabinet meeting tomorrow night, all undertakings and funds will be transferred over and TNSC wound down.
The SWRDA has agreed to transfer all funding to the new company as well as giving it a one-off funding sum of £1.5m.
Coun Young said: “This new company will push forward the regeneration of Swindon and people will see things getting done.
“It will continue to look at the town centre but also other areas that are in need of regeneration – such as Old Town.
“Of course we, along with every other council in the UK, are on tenterhooks to see what funding cuts will happen after the election, but we are making sure we are set up and ready to go on the regeneration front.
“The biggest problem we have in terms of public perception is that people think we are stalling and not doing anything. The reality is that regeneration takes a long time and we are always being compared to Bristol with people saying they managed to build Cabot Circus in the same time as we have had.
“That is simply not true – Cabot Circus was 20 years in the planning and we do not have that amount of time to transform Swindon.”
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