THE forthcoming new stage of the Kimmerfields development is something we should all welcome.

It makes perfect sense architecturally, commercially and in terms of evolution.

When the area around Fleming Way took its current shape more than 40 years ago, it conformed to contemporary ideas of what town centres should be made to look like once much older structures had been removed.

The area was an architect’s vision of what such a place should be in the twilight of the 20th Century, and has served its purpose at least a well as similar developments in other parts of the country.

Since then design trends have moved on, and what once looked contemporary is ready for replacement.

The area also currently conforms in design terms to what was expected of the shopping experience long before factors such as online retail came into play.

Town centres, in which a host of individuals, locations, trends and economic factors combine to create a single entity, are perhaps best thought of as organisms. Like other organisms, they live or die according to their ability to evolve - to adapt as their surroundings change.

The time has long since come for the town centre to change, not least because the community around it has already changed into something almost completely different from the Swindon of four decades or so ago. The population is larger and has different expectations.

Those in charge of the work readily admit that Kimmerfields will not be complete for several years, but each step along the way is valuable progress.