At least £50,000 has been spent on proposals for the Kimmerfields regeneration zone in the centre of Swindon.

And the borough council expects another £250,000 to be spent on paperwork and marketing the site.

The figures come in an answer to the borough council’s cabinet following a question by Labour councillor Jim Robbins about the cost of producing the plans for Kimmerfields.

The £50,000 spent so far is since the council parted company with the original developer and promoter of the site Muse Developments in December 2017.

In response to Coun Robbins' questions as to how much public money had been spent of the project so far, Dale Heenan, cabinet member for the town centre wrote that Homes England, which owns part of the site, had spent £10m including work on Whalebridge Roundabout. The borough council also spent £15m on the new multi-storey car park - the money was borrowed and will be repaid from income from car parking charges at the site.

Coun Robbins third question was how much private sector money had been attracted by the development.

The answer was that the anchor occupier, Zurich insurance, would bring an investment of more than £30m. Zurich’s plan is to build two office blocks which the council will buy and lease.