BACKING for a 102-bedroom hotel in north Swindon could scupper town centre regeneration

Well if the New Swindon Company did more than erect fences and let tacky little fun fairs rent their land people wouldn't be panicking about this.

If it has been identified that Swindon needs a new hotel then we should get on a build one.

Swindon does need at least 1 or 2 more hotels and I would have thought that next to the A419 would have been a better location for it than in the middle of town centre. (I had to drive into town last week to drop of some outdoor play equipment and the roads were jammed solid, 3/4 of a hour for turnpike to the top of Bath Road)

I have no idea why the NSC think that they are improving our town centre by allowing more hotels.

If I was coming from out of town i'd personally prefer to stay outside of the town centre - unless of course I wanted to buy some chav clothing and get lashed in a grotty little puke filled pub whilst wearing my Elizabeth Duke sovereigns.

Yes surely the site for a hotel is close to a major road artery not in the town centre .Congestion in Swindon is terrible already and building huge hotels in the town will benefit nobody.Has anybody noticed that nothing seems to be happening at any of these 'development' sites in town. It seems to me that eyesore buildings were demolished leaving even worse derelict plots surrounded by security fencing. Great. Just what we all need.They'll probably take as long to develope as the Mechanics.

Lets be generous and say 80% occupation - thats about 75 cars a day, most of whom will be in/out in overnight - and if that can scupper the town centre regenration, then it's on pretty shaky ground to start with.

The residents of Swindon will get no benefit should these hotels be built in the town centre, and I'm sure that most people would prefer leisure facilities in their town centre, Modus and the The New Swindon Company objections are without foundation as they do not represent the views held by the people of Swindon. I would personally like to see an ice rink and new swimming baths built, you property developers can shove your hotels where the sun don't shine.

digger wrote:
Lets be generous and say 80% occupation - thats about 75 cars a day, most of whom will be in/out in overnight - and if that can scupper the town centre regenration, then it's on pretty shaky ground to start with.

No one was saying that extra cars would scupper the town centre regeneration.
The NSC wanted the out of town hotel turned down in case it took business away from the town centre.
Those who had commented on the story seem to think there was more than enough traffic in town as it is so the hotel development should go ahead out of town.

Call me a sceptic (or a nimby, or a do gooder) but surely a hotel, next to the main highway, makes perfect sense. Unless of course people with influence are still eager to divert the focus back to Matthew Sigh and his horrendous proposals for the Mechanics' Horror Hotel.
No couldn't be anything suspicious there, after all, Planet Bollywood (also owned by Mr Singh) is advertised the only catering establishment to be awarde 5 stars by SBC.
No such thing as "pure" coincidence.
Build a hotel on a main access route? Why not?
Destroy the towns heritage Why?
Who's cratching who's back?

digger wrote:
Lets be generous and say 80% occupation - thats about 75 cars a day, most of whom will be in/out in overnight - and if that can scupper the town centre regenration, then it's on pretty shaky ground to start with.

I'm with Digger; if 75 cars (generous etimate 150 people) a day not coming into town centre will casue such a deterioration in the business case for the town centre regeneration then it can't be much of a case to start with.
Anyway, why should one business not be allowed to build cos it will impact on others? It's called a free market!

Finally, the congestion is already bad, it makes eminent sense for a hotel on the main road around Swindon.

The New Swindon Company, which was created to drive the regeneration of the town...

...and who nave so far be granted lots of money and achieved absolutely nothing.

I would be very interested to know why Swindon Council are throwing our tax money at a company that has been set up to do what Swindon Council itself should be doing in any case.

Whenever I hear 'New Swindon Company' mentioned, the words 'Gravy Train' spring to mind... nice work if you can get it.

I agree with the majority of your correspondents - gravy Train seems to sum up the fact that competition is not to be allowed even though the proposed Hotel will cater for people on the North side of Swindon and those travelling between the M6 & M4.

Swindon Borough Council seem to want to deter all vehicular travel & parking in the centre areas of Swindon so why then contemplate attractions that attract motor traffic?

Small minded Swindon again.

I don't get the objections. Considering the 419 is a major road and very close to the M4, it shouldn't affect the town centre at all. I don't remember hearing the Hilton or the Holiday Inn objecting to the proposed town centre hotels.

Anyway, if the council want to ease congestion, why don't the council combine a hotel @ Turnpike with the Copse park & ride - have a large car park come park & ride on one site?

It seems to me that Modus are getting in early to build up the excuses as to why nothing is going to happen in the town centre. They will then blame it on SBC for allowing the hotel development alongside the A419. There will then be a long drawn out blame game between SBC, Modus and NSC as to why nothing has been done and the regeneration of the Town Centre collapses. In the meantime Snelgrove and Wills will make political hay and say it's all the fault of the Tory council.
You read it here first folks!!!!

Last time I went to town I went past the new hotel in Princes Street. What a shambles. No proper parking and no proper set down area.

Why should visitors to Swindon be forced into this situation when they can go to an out of town hotel with these facilities.

If Modus are only offering a new hotel then chuck them and the NSC out of Swindon. All they seem to have done at the moment is flatten buildings and put up hoardings.

The NSC had a vested interest in the hotel and hostel being finalised so quickly on Princes Street.

Funny how this plot didn't get the white fence treatment like the rest isn't it.

You watch Davis House be all nice and pretty rather quickly too!

Perhaps we could fill the holes with excess dog poo while they are figuring out what to do next.

The NSC had a vested interest in the hotel and hostel being finalised so quickly on Princes Street.

And even then that area is absolutely horrible.

A low-rent motel/hotel surrounded by a job centre, a down and out's hostel, Council offices and a dual carriageway (not to mention the now obligatory town centre views of white fencing).

How delightful.

Where are the UKIPs on this subject. They don't normally take this long to solve all our problems.

Only jut seen this Mick, so will oblige with an answer. The assumption here is that a hotel at Turnpike will impact on Swindon Centre, what an absurd assumption. The chances are that those booking the hotel will be the very people engaged in the town centre regeneration projects when they finally get underway. Building Contractors cannot afford £100/night rooms. Given that the development of Swindon is likely to go on for a 2 decades with house building etc I do not see a problem. There is more than enough business for another hotel of this type. It certainly doesn't bother me personally either as a close by Motel. The builders will need somewhere to stay when constructing it.
Robert Feal-Martinez
UKIP PPC Swindon South

I like Robert's logic: we need to build more hotels to house the builders that are building the new hotels. Your career in politics is assured if you keep that up.

Of course, this is all a complete nonsense.

If the plans for town centre regeneration are so flimsy as to come crashing down just because somebody builds a 102-bed hotel on the outskirts of Swindon then it's doomed to failure in any case.

Looked at comically, this is just corporate stamping of feet and spitting of dummies. They want their hotel development in the town centre and that's what they'll scream about until they get it.

On the other hand, and more sinisterly, this is high level blackmail, with the town itself being used as bait. Pretty disgraceful really.

On a wider point - why are we employing people to oversee the regeneration of Swindon whose only 'vision' appears to be a centre packed full of as many hotels as possible?

What a startling lack of imagination. Unless they are historic, most town centre hotels in large towns and cities are almost always souless and very ugly places. They attract contract workers and travelling salesmen. They rarely, if ever, bring real prosperity to the surrounding businesses and services - mainly because those who use them are only there during times when most shops and facilities are shut.

The regeneration also seems hell bent on yet another cinema for the town. I have been to both our current multiplexes over the holiday period and neither of them was remotely busy. Yes, there were people there but you could have doubled the amount at both and still had plenty of seats to spare.

I get the impression our 'masters' know already that they are having big trouble attracting anything else to set up in Swindon town centre.

Let's face it, walk through town today and you'll see 20% of the existing shops closed and boarded up (some of them have been that way for years). You will see brand new retail premises that have remained empty for several years. You will see a wide range of mobile phone shops and Poundland-style retailers and that's about it. Our town centre can't even support a Burger King for crying out loud - you know you're in trouble when a national burger chain has to close down its town centre operation in your town.

I have a feeling that this proposed hotel is desperately required just to have something be constructed in Swindon town centre, hence this latest paddywhack about it being built on the outskirts.

As far as I can see, Bristol commenced a city centre regeneration around the same time as Swindon (two or three years ago) and is already well on the way to completetion.

Has anything actually begun in Swindon? The library seems to be taking forever to complete (and still looks nowhere near half-built) and everything else is just demolished buildings surrounded by white fencing.

How many years has the college simply stood empty?

Maybe they're waiting for all the new flats and bedsits to be occupied before beginning work on the town centre? It's all a big 'chicken & egg' gamble if that's the case... because, and it may have escaped people's notice, these flats are no longer selling. What possible reason would people have to move to Swindon?

The jobs are mainly unskilled/semi-skill
ed nightmares at places like Honda and Nationwide. The average pay is several thousand pounds lower per annum than the national average. There is little or no proper recreational facilities - the Oasis is well past its sell by date and the Link Centre is simply an embarrassment (a violent one at that).

About the only thing I can think of in recent years that's actually happened in and around Swindon is the opening of a huge sized Asda.

And if that doesn't just sum up the town, I don't know what does.

Big Mac, I don't always see eye to eye with your comments, but I can't argue with anything you have written above.