Bosses at Swindon Borough Council did not ask for a report into ambitious £750m plans to regenerate the town centre before dismissing them, the Adver can reveal.

Labour parish councillor Patrick Herring asked to see reports into Laurie Marsh’s Destination Swindon proposals under the Freedom of Information Act.

He was stunned to be told there were none, and now Labour has called for a cross-party review of the decision.

But the Tories say the plans, including a 2,000-seat conference centre, a university and even a monorail, were so far-fetched that serious investigation was not necessary.

Coun Herring asked for: “Any report prepared and provided to councillors in order to inform their decision” not to pursue the plan first put forward in 2017

The response from Euclid Street was: “The council does not have the information requested.”

Mr Herring said: “The implication of this is quite explosive. No reports were produced by anyone acting on behalf of the council when it made the decision to turn away Dr Marsh’s proposal.

“Either no formal due diligence was carried out or it was carried out in such a way that no officers were consulted and no information was written down and retained.”

The Labour spokesman for economic development Jim Robbins said: “This detailed proposal appears to have been stopped on a whim by a few senior councillors who didn’t even tell their Conservative colleagues.

“It is now clear that we need to have an open and transparent review of the plans proposed by Dr Marsh on a cross-party basis so we can determine their true value and make a decision on whether we adopt them as a town.”

But the cabinet member for the town centre Dale Heenan has hit back at Labour, saying the plans are simply not realistic enough to merit the time and expense of reports.

He said: “This proves Labour didn’t do their own due diligence in the past six months, and clearly didn’t ask council officers, Network Rail or any independent source for advice. It is either that or they have decided their best tactic is to throw fake allegations around.

“For everyone’s benefit, I’ll mention just three of the many problems again with the monorail, canal, university, conference centre idea which Labour is championing.

“Obtaining land and buildings from Network Rail is fundamental to Destination Swindon having any chance of happening.

“Network Rail said more than a year ago it does not wish to participate for good reasons. The whole idea is a non-starter. Even if the council wanted to proceed, Network Rail said no.

“Secondly, page 36 of the HM Treasury guidance on managing public money is clear, the public sector should not 'engage in, or connive at, any tax planning'.

“HMRC guidance is equally clear. It might be legal, but why would anyone walk into the grey area and need lengthy reports on the difference between being tax efficient versus tax avoidance?

“Third, there is no philanthropy. There is no money. There is no viable plan without Network Rail.

“There is not one example of any council successfully obtaining £1.5 billion using a charity for regeneration. At what point does someone accept the monorail, canal, university and conference centre is a bad idea, and move on?

“Does every bad idea now need a lengthy council report to justify not spending any further time on it?”

When asked whether he was disappointed at the suggestion the cabinet had not asked for an officer’s report, Dr Marsh said: “It’s not the best word for it. It’s much more serious what they’re doing to the people of Swindon.”