New Golden Age for Swindon in the offing
A gathering earlier this week at the heart of British democracy proved that anybody who cares about the town has plenty of reasons to be cheerful
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The most optimistic buzz about Swindon since the 1990s
By Barrie Hudson
Earlier this week the main function room of the House of Lords was the venue for a remarkable gathering.
Its purpose was simple: to showcase why now is an ideal time to invest in Swindon. Copies of the Heart of Swindon document, which sets out a comprehensive vision for the future encompassing everything from new homes to culture, and from commerce to education, were eagerly picked up by many of those who attended.
The event was hosted by former North Swindon MP Lord Michael Wills, and there were speeches from him and other VIPs including both current Swindon MPs, Swindon Borough Council Leader Cllr Jim Robbins and representatives of business.
As inspiring as the speakers were, the true barometers of any such event are the turnout and who makes up that turnout. The very large venue was so packed with representatives of businesses, the scientific community, arts organisations and other highly influential people that it took several minutes to make one’s way from one end to the other. Every one of those attendees, especially the businesspeople, has a very busy schedule indeed, so the fact that they cleared several hours of those schedules to hear about Swindon and the opportunities it presents is cause for optimism.
More than one person present remarked that there had not been such a buzz about Swindon since the final years of the 20th century.
Lord Wills went to far as to hail the town’s next Golden Age.
He said: "Tonight I want to invite you all to celebrate the Heart of Swindon, which for one night only is in the House of Lords. This is a special evening because it is the inauguration of what we all hope will be a third Golden Age of this town in Wiltshire.
"The first Golden Age was when the world's greatest engineer since the Age of the Pyramids, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, chose a tiny Wiltshire market town as the location for the workshop of his Great Western Railway. This was crucial in the town's development as a centre for skilled engineering, bringing prosperity and pride to this small Wiltshire town for over a century. But then, as the railways began to decline in the mid-20th century, the town triumphantly reinvented itself from the town Brunel had created into a second Golden Age, attracting workers from all over the United Kingdom, creating growth and prosperity for the surrounding region, building new houses, attracting new industries - Allied Dunbar as it was, WH Smith, Honda and so on.