Any pedestrian who has wanted to get from the town centre to the Designer Outlet, or Steam or North Star knows the two underpasses under the railway lines they need to use.

One is closed at night, and sometimes at other times.

While the other open underpass is not a particularly welcoming thoroughfare, and has been the site of serious criminal incidents.

 Now Swindon Borough Council wants to know what people want to be done about them as part of its work on the Heritage Action Zone work around the railway works and Railway Village.

 It has launched a public consultation on what should be done about them.

 A spokesman for the council said: ”A key project in Swindon’s Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) is the upgrade of the Bristol Street and Sheppard Street tunnels.

 “We’re well aware that these locations need work and we’re currently in the design and consultation phase of the project.

 “This includes the tunnel entrances and adjoining streets of Sheppard Street and London Street, with the streets themselves benefitting from a slight redesign and uplift to improve pedestrian access, safety, increase the green spaces to benefit the urban natural environment and provide a higher quality setting for our historic buildings.”

 Councillor Matty Courtliff, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Heritage, Leisure and Town Centre Experience, said: “I’m pleased to see this project moving forward as it’s important to ensure a safe and pleasant environment for users of the underpasses when they are walking or cycling from the Swindon Designer Outlet and North Star to the town centre.

“The best way for us to do this is work in consultation with the users and I’d encourage as many people as possible to come forward and share their views on what they think of these plans and let us know their ideas.

“If anyone has any comments about this project, please get in touch.”

 The public consultation, which runs until Friday, 9 December. If you have any thoughts on this project, please respond with any comments by emailing the project team at HAZstreetsandspaces@swindon.gov.uk

 The Sheppard Street and London Street areas are a specific project in the raft of schemes submitted in the council’s successful bid for nearly £20m from the government’s Towns Fund.

Of that money £3m has been allocated to Sheppard Street and London Street and the underpasses.