Major new town centre performance venue announced

The location of a proposed new state-of-the-art Swindon town centre arts venue has been revealed.

Borough council Cabinet members will be asked on 13 November to confirm the location of the venue at the bus station site and take the next steps to bring the plan forward.

Announcing the move, a council spokesperson said: "Swindon deserves a new, state-of-the-art performance and cultural venue in the town centre and that’s why we committed in the Swindon Plan to bringing forward proposals to deliver one."

Bringing the plan forward, the spokesperson said, will involve working with prospective venue operators to develop a detailed business case that sets out the financial implications, including the build costs, operating costs, revenue surpluses and any funding gap and options for bridging it.

The announcement continued: "Initial discussions with prospective operators indicate that there is a financially viable route to build a high specification venue.

"In the meantime, a committee of councillors (Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee) will have the opportunity next week (31 October) to review aspects of the approach and the outline business case ahead of the Cabinet meeting.

"This has assessed that the bus station site at Kimmerfields is the only suitable site for the venue due to its size, configuration and availability."

The plans are drawing on approaches taken elsewhere, such as with the ABBA Arena in East London.

The report going before next week's Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee, including visualisations of the proposed venue, says in part: "The Oasis Leisure Centre and Wyvern Theatre have provided the main music and theatre venues for the Borough over the last 50 years. However, these venues have become obsolete.

"An assessment of these venues has concluded that they do not offer the technical specifications required by touring companies or the user experience expected by customers. Further, the Wyvern Theatre is only able to operate with a substantial subsidy from the Council. The building is coming to end of life and will require substantial investment if it is to continue to operate as a theatre." 

The report adds: "The bus station site at Kimmerfields has been assessed as being the only suitable site for the venue by virtue of its size, configuration and availability. 

"This assessment reaffirms the Cabinet resolution of October 2022 which agreed a refresh of the Kimmerfields Masterplan to include a cultural quarter, which would include a 1,200 seat theatre. 

"More detailed analysis of the Kimmerfields scheme concludes that the bus station site offers significant strengths in terms of its regeneration impact. The bus station site will become available for development in autumn 2025."

The report can be seen here.