Swindon Borough Council’s Corporate Overview & Scrutiny Committee is scheduled to hold a special meeting next Thursday to discuss the possible option for the siting, design and construction techniques for the new venue. The agenda listing on the council’s website shows that most of the meeting, and many of the papers available to members of the committee, will be private and confidential, with members of the press and public excluded. But a proposal for the building, drawn up by specialist entertainment architect Stufish, the company which built the Abba Voyage Arena, gives some detail of where it might be and what it might look like.
(Image: Stufish/SBC) The estimated cost of construction is just under £35m, although it should be noted that like the details of the proposal in the paper to be discussed, this figure is very much a possible option. A fully worked-up planning application for any new venue is some way off, and many aspects of that may be very different from what will be put to the scrutiny committee next week. The paper by company Stufish shows the entertainment venue would be built on what is now Swindon Bus Station, off Manchester Road, next to the Tri-Centre building complex.
The approach for those attending the venue would be from the south of the building, from the direction of Fleming Way across an open plaza, with the stage door and loading dock accessed from Manchester Road. The proposal says to keep costs down the building would be constructed in a .