It’s not easy to get major building and regeneration projects up and running, as every part of the UK has found. Swindon is certainly no different.

The keys to success are to have a clear eye at all times on the eventual prize, and dogged determination.

Over the past years, I lost count of the times I was told that the new Regent Circus development would never happen, and how every time a milestone date slipped it was a sign of inevitable failure.

Now it’s nearly complete, and will be a real boost to the town centre when it opens shortly. Where are the doom-mongers now?

I am reminded of this when I think of our ambition to see the Oasis Leisure Centre turned into a regional leisure destination, complete with ski slope, a performance arena, ten-pin bowling, a cinema, and cafés, restaurants, bars and a hotel.

We did a deal with developers Moirai to achieve this ambition, and they have already spent £1.5million on the reception area and gym, money which the council simply didn’t have to spend on the building.

However, as we have found before, projects run into unexpected difficulties, and this one has been no different. Like many residents, I am disappointed that the work on the swimming pool remains to be done, as the original agreement stated it should have happened by now.

The Council also made it clear that it was very unhappy that local businesses, and indeed the council, were left out of pocket when one of the Moirai companies involved was sold and then went into liquidation.

This is now part of a legal process, which we cannot influence.

So what should we have done? As I said earlier, you must always keep your eye on the potential prize.

The council must always back the horse that is most likely to deliver eventual success. In our view that horse is still Moirai, who have done much work behind the scenes to continue to develop the project and get some impressive partners on board.

I recently authorised changes to the dates by which we expect Moirai to deliver key sections of the project, to allow them more time to do it.

There are those who see that as proof that the project is doomed, and we should instead pull the plug and start again. I simply don’t agree.

If we did that every time commercial partners encountered a problem, we would never get anything done.