It was a car park. Then for two months it was a demolition site.

Now the land behind the H&M in the town centre is a car park again... but only temporarily.

A year ago teams from the Lawson Group began knocking down The Parade Car park as one of the early stages of developing Fleming Way into a public transport hub –  the much-heralded ‘Bus Boulevard’.

When the whole scheme is completed in two years’ time the site will be used as a station for rural bus services heading into and out of Swindon. But at the early stages of the programme the site is hoarded and fenced and used as parking for workers on the Fleming Way scheme.

The £33m project will see huge changes made to that northern end of the town centre and its links with the business district across Fleming Way.

Deputy leader of Swindon Borough Council and the cabinet member for strategic infrastructure, transport and planning Gary Sumner said of the whole scheme: “This is not just about making a place for buses to circulate.

“It’s much more about regenerating that area of the town centre and the business district around Kimmerfields."

The centrepiece of the regeneration project is the new, nearly completed seven-storey Zurich headquarters which overlooks the Parade from across Fleming Way.

In order to make the journey from the central business district around Kimmerfields to the main shopping area much more pleasant, the entire road will be lowered taking away the need for the somewhat forbidding underpass.

One single bus interchange for all services which now currently use Fleming way and Swindon Bus Station will be created at the western end of Fleming Way.

Services to Oxford and Salisbury and those run by National Express will be run from where Cheltenham Street car park stands.

A new cycle route which connects the existing Western and Eastern Flyers will be created and when Fleming Way re-opens in late 2024, only buses and taxis and cycles will be allowed along it between Whalebridge junction and Milford Street.

The existing bus station will also be demolished as used as part of the regeneration of the business district north of Fleming Way.

More details on the Fleming Way scheme can be found at the borough council’s website at www.swindon.gov.uk/info/20136/transport_strategy/1089/fleming_way_improvements