The councillor in charge of making sure Swindon’s town centre is a lively and prosperous place is celebrating the fact that the town’s Debenham’s branch is not to close.

The department store chain issued a list of 22 of its shops across the country that have been earmarked for closure, with the loss of 1,200 jobs.

While the store in Witney in Oxfordshire is to shut Swindon’s is not.

Coun Dale Heenan said he believed it was because the store knew Swindon was still a viable market with a strong future: “The announcement is in line with what we are being told, so local residents should be reassured and quietly confident that the store will stay.

“Swindon is profitable for Debenhams and there are exciting plans finally coming good in the town centre with new office headquarters, the ski slope and a rebuild of a larger Wyvern theatre. Residents face a choice next week in whether they see cranes and diggers appearing in Swindon this summer, or for these plans to be ripped up setting the town’s regeneration back another 10 years and risking the closure of Debenhams and other stores.”

Leader of the Labour group on the council Jim Grant, said: "It is obviously good news that the Debenhams in Swindon is staying open for the time being but I do worry about its long term future when we continue to see no regeneration of our town centre. My concern is that Debenhams will sacrifice its Swindon store in favour of stores in other centres with greater footfall and that’s why we urgently need the regeneration of our town centre.”

Coun Heenan is standing next week for election in Dorcan and Covingham. Other candidates are Melanie Bailey (UKIP) and Tom Smith (Labour)