I was interested to read in Saturday’s Advertiser the paper’s report on the number of empty shops in our town centre.

Although we do not own the vast majority of the town centre, the changing nature of the nation’s High Street is an issue, which local councils are tackling up and down the country.

In Swindon, we recognise that our town centre has to change because it is not sustainable in its current format. Put simply, the rise in demand for online shopping has resulted in fewer people using traditional shops and the challenge all towns and cities are now facing is how they breathe new life into their central districts.

We have identified that we need to shrink the retail element of the town centre and focus on creating more homes, which is why we have identified Fleet Street and Bridge Street as areas which would be more suited to residential units than commercial. We need to make the town centre a place where people come to socialise and that means creating more leisure opportunities for people to enjoy. A key part of this strategy centres on our plans to turn Fleming Way into a new bus interchange featuring new public space with improved cycling routes.

We still have one final hurdle to overcome before we obtain the £25m in government funding we need to turn this tired part of town into a place that people can be proud of, but improving the public realm is just one reason for progressing this scheme.

Transforming Fleming Way and creating a sustainable transport hub will not only make travelling by bus or bike a more appealing way of getting into the centre of town, it will create a welcoming gateway for visitors, building on the improvements we made last year to Wellington Street opposite Swindon train station.The current bus station and underpass underneath Fleming Way does not paint our town in the best light.

Opening up this whole area, creating a green spine with wildflowers and even bee bus stops will not just benefit local people and employees, it will attract even more investment, helping to create the improvements in our Town Centre that all of us crave.

One of the reasons Zurich has opted to build its new £35m office block next to the Tri-Centre, is due to our vision for remodelling Fleming Way. If you haven’t seen the Fleming Way plans I would encourage you to see the potential that Zurich has seen.

A second public drop-in is taking place at the Jurys Inn today, March 5 between 2pm and 7pm. If you can’t make it then the Council’s Facebook page has an animation which shows what the new area could look like. Further information on the plans is available at swindon.gov.uk/busboulevard