Planning

I had to laugh at another article that had surfaced in the Swindon Advertiser concerning the former Three Tuns Pub in Wroughton.  

Having been a pub (and thus a licensed premises) for around a century, several residents have been attempting to thwart Morrisons' plans to convert the derelict building into one of their new 'M' Local concept stores.  I'm not entirely sure what planet the residents were communicating from at the time, but I find it bizarre that an attempt was made to block an application for a licence at a site that was formerly a licensed premises.

For all those hoping for the pizazz and flamboyance of an implosive demolition, I'm afraid you're going to need disguise your bitter disappointment for the news I'm about to deliver.  Aspen House will be removed from the Swindon skyline floor by floor.  Much like an elderly relative sitting in God's waiting room waiting for the inevitable, the building will linger on as demolition crews hoist heavy machinery to the roof and erase this blot on the landscape piece by piece until they reach the third floor.

I'm not one to lift images from the web, but I have borrowed the above from the PDF brochure available on the Regent Cirus website to show what the development should look like once it's finished. 

There's no doubt in anyone's mind that the former Swindon College site at the end of Regent Circus was in poor shape when the college moved out in 2005 and it being left derelict, much like Aspen House which became vacant at around the same time certainly has left its mark at the 'top-end' of new town, not only aesthetically, but also economically.  Ashfield Land purchased the Regent Circus site in 2006 and now the former eyesore is starting to morph into a clean and modern structure.