Some say Dr Laurie Marsh’s Destination Swindon is a ‘fanciful idea’. Others think the £750 million regeneration scheme is worth further investigation, and maybe even investment.

Until now details of what those proposals actually are have been somewhat sketchy – at least in the public domain.

But the Adver has obtained the briefing document shared with councillors by Dr Marsh in August 2017, where he suggests the council uses its own land for development, granting itself planning consent and increasing its value, and raises the money based on that.

See the 4 major new project in the plan below

First it flatters the town, saying it has been a “business success story for nearly four decades” and in 2014 was “second only to Cambridge in terms of innovation” with its workers the equal of those in Oxford, Cambridge and Milton Keynes for gross value added.

But it goes on: “The heart of Swindon has failed to keep pace with the town’s role as an important growth hub, it looks tired and dated and there are no distinctive landmarks to give it a sense of place and lacks the amenities or buzz to keep people after work or pull the spenders in.”

But the report says Swindon is big and important enough to become a “truly destination visit.”

It proposes setting up a charity – the Destination Swindon Trust – to be chaired by Dr Marsh to take the redevelopment forward.

And it has four very ambitious plans.

NEW 'HUB'

1. The first is for the Gooch Centre – “a new hub at and over the railway station comprising international 2,000 seat conference, exhibition and concert hall with an integrated four-star hotel.”

UNIVERSITY

2. It proposes a university with “research facilities and halls of residence, creating a new campus at the Kimmerfields site to remove the higher education soft spot status and provide state-of-the-art learning in Swindon.”

CANAL

3. It wants to reconstruct the Wilts and Berks Canal in the centre of town as a “water-based leisure and recreational waterfront.”

It says enabling such a development “will act as a catalyst for growth and deliver substantial affordable housing.”

MONORAIL

The most eye-catching idea, though, is a monorail: “An innovative rapid mass transit system, to and from the centre in all directions, to move visitors and residents in and out of the centre, quickly cheaply and efficiently and to connect major centres of interest in the town."

The advantages of the projects being run by a charity, according to Dr Marsh, are that property assets may be owned by or transferred to the charity and that it would pay VAT at just five per cent, would pay no corporation tax, and would take no profits or pay dividends to shareholders.

The proposals say the four major proposals will cost £1.2 billion, which it suggests will come from commercial funding, but will realise a resale value totalling £1.52bn, a ‘profit’ of £320m, which it suggests would be used for improving other areas of Swindon.

In the proposals, £20m of the profit would be spent of the Mechanics’ Institute, £2m on Railway Village, £35m on a new theatre complex on the site of the Wyvern Theatre.

It even suggests spending £10m on the Magic Roundabout, saying: “This is Swindon’s biggest known feature but is in a very poor state of repair and very underwhelming to visitors.

"Plans did exist for rebuilding the infrastructure and making it interesting and attractive ‘must visit’ tourist feature.”

The proposals say the plan for the Gooch Centre at the railway station could be commercially financed, with the support of Network Rail, with money paid out on completion, and the borough council could donate part of the Kimmerfields site, which it owns, to the university.

Money realised by the completion of the Gooch Centre would go towards buying the land need for the waterfront in Faringdon Park and the canal running from it, and then the council and Network Rail buy the land for the monorail, using funds from developers building at the waterfront.

Its figures suggest the monorail would lose £1m a year, costing £4m to run and making £3m in ticket sales.

It concludes that several projects, like the Theatre Royal, Bath, The Perse School in Cambridge. The Round House in London and the Cinema Museum and Chaplin Museum have all been funded by a charitable trust initiative.