GREETINGS from Swindon in 2018 - as envisioned in 2004.

These images are among seven issued to promote a massive redevelopment plan which would have transformed much of the town centre, North Star and the railway quarter beyond recognition.

The project was the work of the New Swindon Company, an organisation formed in 2002 and controlled by the council, the South West of England Regional Development Agency and the Government’s Homes and Communities Agency.

The organisation cost £750,000 to set up and was paid roughly the same annually.

The New Swindon Company was replaced in 2010 by Forward Swindon, a wholly council-owned organisation.

When the drawings were made available to the press and public 14 years ago, there was every reason to hope the economy would continue to boom and the plans, funded entirely by the private sector, would become reality.

A throwaway remark by New Swindon Company chief Peter Andrews in July of that year proved inadvertently prophetic.

Asked whether there was any reason why the planned 15-year project might be derailed, he replied: “There might be a worldwide recession. That is unlikely, but we depend on the economic cycle.

“We are relying on the private sector. The only public cash being used is to kick start some of the programmes. Like everything in life, there are no guarantees.”

Our main image is of a sector which would have been called The Promenade and focused on culture. The brick structure at the far right is the frontage of the magistrates’ court and we gaze across and along Princes Street.

The smaller image shows what would have been known as The Exchange, a sector of new office buildings billed as an improvement on the mostly 1960s, 1970s and 1980s structures the town already had.

Other office space was to be offered in a sector called The Campus, which was near the Oasis, as was a planned residential area called North Star Village. A shopping and leisure area called Swindon Central would have lain along the railway corridor, while The Hub was described as transforming town centre shopping.

The Arena would have bordered The Promenade, and was described as giving the town the heart so many people said it lacked.

Mr Andrews, who would leave Swindon for a project in London the following year, said the first stages of the project included the building of the new central library and the revamping of the Brunel Centre.