A MULTI-million pound grant bid should be submitted to the government in time, after councillors backed plans to develop a £33m bus boulevard in Swindon town centre.

Swindon Borough Council has earmarked £5m for the scheme, with an additional £3m coming from the regional local economic partnership.

They hope to win £25m from the government’s Future High Streets Fund to make up the shortfall.

But bids for the Whitehall grants scheme close today. If cabinet had rejected the bus boulevard strategy on Thursday night, it could potentially have put at risk the whole project. There is no plan B, councillors heard.

Coun Dale Heenan, cabinet member for the town centre, pressed the urgency of making a decision.

“The report in front of us is the combination of over seven years’ work. The deadline for the Future High Streets Fund is Friday, so after tonight’s discussion we will be very pleased to continue working with the officers to ensure a submission is made in a very timely fashion,” he said.

The new bus boulevard would form part of a string of town centre developments, including the construction of Snoasis and the redevelopment of the Zurich offices, that the council hopes will get underway this year.

“2019 is the year of delivery,” Coun Heenan told cabinet.

If the council plans are realised, parts of Fleming Way would be closed off, the current bus station knocked down, Whalebridge junction remodelled and the underpass replaced with pedestrian crossings.

Councillors expect to hear in the summer if they have won the Whitehall cash. If successful, it would take three years to build.

Coun Bob Wright, a Labour central ward councillor, raised concerns that the proposals would increase air pollution along Manchester Road as traffic was diverted.

“I’ll just leave it to common sense that if you move vehicles from one area to another you take with them the pollution,” he told councillors.

Coun Heenan said advice from borough officers was that it would not result in potentially-illegal pollution levels.

The council would take on board Labour councillors’ concerns about the lack of public toilets and request for a turning onto Islington Street from Fleming Way, Coun Heenan said.

However, following fears raised by Coun Wright about the lack of a plan B, the cabinet member appeared to acknowledge there was currently no alternative if the £25m from government was not forthcoming.

“If we are unsuccessful we will need to talk about a plan B,” he said.