Funding for Swindon town centre’s much-needed new bus station has been promised by the Government as part of £11.5m of new funding revealed for Wiltshire.
The investment was announced by Deputy Prime Mininster Nick Clegg, pictured, during a brief visit to the town – part of a whistle-stop tour of the West of England to promote the additional spending under the Government’s Growth Deal. 
The funding is in addition to £129.3m already promised to Swindon and Wiltshire over the next six years. Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which is receiving the money from the Government, estimates it could fund up to 3,000 jobs and 2,000 new homes.
The new bus interchange forms part of a redesigned Fleming Way and is included in the second phase of the town centre’s £350m Kimmerfields town centre regeneration scheme.
The first phase – a £15m 850-space multi-storey car park and 45-apartment residential building – has already been completed by developer Muse.
Building a new bus interchange in Fleming Way will allow Muse to demolish Swindon’s outdated bus station and redevelop the area around the Tri-Centre office buildings as a new central business district.
Fleming Way will then be closed to traffic other than buses and cyclists while the pedestrian underpass will be filled in – making the route between the railway station and town centre much more attractive and ending the ‘north-south’ divide which blights the area.
It is unclear how much of the £11.5m announced today will go towards the bus interchange –the funding will also support the development of an incubation space for digital and innovation start-ups in Corsham and improvements to the A350 trunk road south east of Trowbridge.
Mr Clegg toured Swindon bus station during his brief visit. He said the extra funding he was announcing had been tied up in Whitehall but would now transform the town centre.
Such Growth Deals, he said, signalled “the death of the culture where Whitehall calls the shots”.
“I’ve seen for myself the difference it makes to give Swindon and the rest of the county more power over skills, over business support, over infrastructure spending,” he said.
LEP chair Barry Dennington added: “I am delighted that the Government recognises the economic potential in Swindon and Wiltshire by announcing an expansion of our Growth Deal. These projects, on top of the initial package of Growth Deal investments, will be transformative, developing Swindon and Wiltshire’s economy and further underlining the area’s strengths in innovation, collaboration and hi-tech industries.”
Wiltshire Council leader Jane Scott said the funding provided further support to develop key transport infrastructure across the county, which in turn will create new jobs and deliver much needed housing.
“In particular it also recognises the unique opportunity that Corsham provides to our county’s future economy,” she said, adding that Wiltshire Council was committing £1.5m of its own resources and assets towards the project.
Swindon Borough Council leader David Renard, who accompanied Mr Clegg on his visit, said: “The announcement of the funding to enable the building of the new bus exchange is very welcome and a great indication of support for the regeneration of the Town Centre in Swindon.
“We have a strong partnership in place to deliver this project which will provide a tremendous gateway into the centre of the town.
“It will benefit the residents of Swindon and the wider area and, crucially support the development of Kimmerfields, the new professional and business heart of the Borough.”
It was Mr Clegg's second visit to Swindon in a little over a month. In December he was in Wichelstowe to sign the original Growth Deal agreement with the LEP.
