Swindon is proud to be HQ for many national companies and organisations. Including the National Trust, English Heritage and the Historic England Archive all of which are based on the Old Railway Quarter adjacent to the Designer Outlet Village. I was delighted to join my colleagues Tracey Crouch, the Minister for Sport, Tourism and Heritage and Robert Buckland MP as we visited all three organisations before paying a visit to the fantastic Steam Museum which showcases Swindon’s railway heritage.
The offices on each visit were really impressive and I was so enthused to hear just how much the staff love being on the site both in terms of location (proximity to shops, accommodation and the station), as well as the general feel of the site which has magnificently managed to restore, and in doing so celebrate, our fantastic industrial heritage. This is a big credit to the developers of the site who you would expect to be best placed to carry out the redevelopment of the adjacent Carriage Works (the site next to the station).
Unfortunately this common sense solution has not prevailed thanks to Forward Swindon’s stubbornness to try and transform the Carriage Works themselves into a Shoreditch-style hot-desking base as part of their ‘vision’ for town centre regeneration (regeneration they have been promising year after year). More fool me for thinking it would be a good idea to actually allow a developer with a proven track record, to bring forward plans to transform the Carriage Works into a high-spec location with a good mixture of residential, retail and office space. Instead, I am told to be positive about Forward Swindon’s ‘plans’. Apparently there will be lots of demand for the hot-desking spaces. In fact, I have been told that there is one tenant already. Who? Forward Swindon of course! It is time Forward Swindon were by-passed and the Old Railway Quarter developers allowed to simply replicate what they have already achieved, but this time at the Carriage Works.
On a more positive note, the Historic England Archive was fascinating to see and I was delighted to take part in ‘enriching the list.’ Listing is the term given to the practice of listing buildings, scheduling monuments, registering parks, gardens and battlefields, and protecting wreck sites. 99% of people in England live within a mile of a listed building or place. Enriching the list is a process of sharing knowledge and pictures of listed places on the Historic England site, in order to enrich their records and contribute different pieces of knowledge. I was able to share a an old photo of the High Street in Highworth, featuring the listed Jesmond House in the distance, now known as the Highworth Hotel.
Finally, this week we saw the Prime Minister trigger Article 50, beginning the process of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. This is an historic moment from which there can be no turning back. We are going to make our own decisions and our own laws. We are going to take control of the things that matter most to us. And we are going to take this opportunity to build a stronger, fairer Britain. Regardless of how you voted in the Referendum, my real hope is that our shared values, interests and ambitions can, and must, bring us together as a country. We can look forward with optimism– and to believe in the enduring power of the British spirit.
